Manly Sea Eagles beat Gold Coast Titans 38 - 20

Brett Stewart has surpassed rugby league Immortal Bob Fulton on Manly's all-time tryscorers' list as the Sea Eagles cemented their position in the NRL top four with a stylish 38-20 win over Gold Coast.

The prolific fullback needed just five minutes to bag his 130th career four-pointer in 171 games before delivering the final pass for three others in a dazzling man-of-the match display on Sunday.

Stewart's tryscoring haul is second only to Manly legend Steve Menzies' 151 from 280 games and, boasting the best strike rate in the league, the 28-year-old is on track to break the club record some time next season.

On a milestone day at Brookvale, Manly captain Jamie Lyon also collected his 100th career try, fittingly off a nice short ball from Stewart, as the Sea Eagles chalked up their third straight win.

Manly out-scored the Titans eight tries to four and the victory margin would have been even more comfortable had Lyon not missed five conversion attempts.

Stewart opened the scoring in the sixth minute when he charged onto a short pass from Anthony Watmough to split the defence, with Lyon's conversion making it 6-0.

Gold Coast replied with a try five minutes later to winger Kevin Gordon, who embarrassed his Manly opposite David Williams to cross in the left-hand corner.

Williams atoned in the 24th minute, capitalising on Stewart's skills to touch down for the home side's second try.

Stewart did brilliantly in juggling the ball behind his head before offloading to Williams as the Titans' defence closed in.

Lyon again added the extras to extend Manly's lead to 12-4.

Three further tries in seven minutes, to Lyon, centre Steve Matai and interchange forward Jamie Buhrer, gave the Eagles a commanding 24-4 lead after 34 minutes.

A converted try to winger David Mead on the stroke of halftime gave the Titans hope and they narrowed the gap to eight points in the 52nd minute when Gordon leapt high to take Albert Kelly's cross-field bomb to score his second four-pointer of the afternoon.

Stewart earned Manly a 12-point buffer when he put second-rower Justin Horo over in the 55th minute, but a shocking piece of play from Glenn Stewart invited Gold Coast back into the contest.

Deep on the attack, Stewart grubber-kicked straight into the arms of Titans five-eighth Aidan Sezer, who raced 98 metres to score - only to miss with his conversion attempt to leave the visitors trailing by eight points with 13 minutes remaining.

But the Eagles clinched victory with two more tries in the last five minutes, to replacement Nick Skinner and winger Jorge Taufua.

 

AAP