Sea Eagles vs Rabbitohs NRL Round 2 betting tips – 20/3/2021

Sea Eagles vs Rabbitohs betting preview

The Sea Eagles and the Rabbitohs are both still searching for their first win of the 2021 NRL season, but there is absolutely no question about which team is in better shape ahead of their clash at Lottoland this Saturday.

The Manly Sea Eagles put forward one of the worst first-round performances by any team in recent memory, and the only positive to draw from that is they can only get better. Again they will be without Tom Trbojevic and have stuck with Lachlan Croker at hooker with Cade Cust on the interchange. Why they came into the season without a specialist dummy-half is still a mystery, but one feels the Eagles would be better served to have Cust start because he has at least played a full season there in reserve grade.

Saturday will be a great chance for the South Sydney Rabbitohs to find their rhythm against a side who looked all at sea defensively in round one. Their last visit to Brookvale resulted in a golden-point loss when they were heavily favoured in 2019, but a repeat of that almost feels impossible.

Manly Sea Eagles betting info

Manly couldn’t tackle a ham sandwich last round, and without ‘Tommy Turbo’ they battled to score points the longer the game went. A bit like finding positives for Canterbury against a premiership heavyweight, it is proving difficult to find any markets where someone in maroon and white can come up with the goods for the punters. They are paying as much as $4 in the head-to-head markets at online bookmakers, but maybe you could convince yourself that Daly Cherry-Evans at $7 is a good anytime tryscorer bet. He spoke to media on Tuesday and thought the reaction to the performance was “overblown” and almost laughed it off, so could he be primed for a big performance?

Manly Sea Eagles

1. Dylan Walker
2. Jason Saab
3. Brad Parker
4. Moses Suli
5. Reuben Garrick
6. Kieran Foran
7. Daly Cherry-Evans
8. Josh Aloiai
9. Lachlan Croker
10. Martin Taupau
11. Andrew Davey
12. Curtis Sironen
13. Jake Trbojevic
14. Cade Cust
15. Jack Gosiewski
16. Sean Keppie
17. Taniela Paseka

South Sydney Rabbitohs betting info

Get the $2 for a 13-plus win while you can, as it will only get shorter the closer it gets to kickoff. The $4 for Alex Johnston to score two or more tries is well worth looking at after his double against the Storm to start the year. He has 10 tries in 11 games against Manly in his career and an overall mark of 108 in 145 games. It might be greedy, but he should be thrown into some same-game multis at that price.

South Sydney Rabbitohs

1. Latrell Mitchell
2. Alex Johnston
3. Dane Gagai
4. Campbell Graham
5. Jaxson Paulo
6. Cody Walker
7. Adam Reynolds
8. Thomas Burgess
9. Damien Cook
10. Tevita Tatola
11. Keaon Koloamatangi
12. Jaydn Su’A
13. Cameron Murray
14. Benji Marshall
15. Mark Nicholls
16. Patrick Mago
17. Jai Arrow

Sea Eagles vs Rabbitohs betting predictions

It feels like another blowout is coming for Manly, and they will have to draw on the Brookvale legend to make it a contest. Sadly, that won’t be enough, and Wayne Bennett will have his team ready to go after a sub-par effort down in Melbourne. Get on the 13-plus margin.

Sea Eagles vs Rabbitohs same game multi

We like Souths at the big margin into Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker and Alex Johnston to all score at any time. That four-leg combo gets you a nice little return of $12 at Sportsbet.com.au.