Manly fans should get excited for the 2022 season as last season’s preliminary finalists unleashed a freakish young duo set to light up the NRL.
The regular season has not yet started but Manly Sea Eagles fans will already be cheering as one of the fastest backline pairings the NRL has seen showed what they could do against the Canberra Raiders.
It was a tough night for the Sea Eagles, losing 18-16 in the side’s final trial game but more importantly, losing prop Marty Taupau with a back injury, Dylan Walker limped off the field with an ankle problem and Haumole Olakau’atu suffered a suspected elbow injury. Ben Trbojevic played through despite initally staying down clutching his knee. Taupau, Walker and Trbojevic are all expected to play in round one.
Just under two weeks from the first match of the season, the wing-centre pairing of Jason Saab and Tolutau Koula have both shown off their extreme speed in the trial match in Gosford.
Stream every game of every round of the 2022 NRL Telstra Premiership Season Live & Ad-Break Free In Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-days free now.
Koula is yet to play NRL but the 19-year-old utility sports the fastest 100m athletics time in GPS history when he ran a 10.58 as a 17-year-old. It’s a time that would have fractionally missed the Australian Track & Field Championships 100m final in 2021.
And with Saab on the wing and one of the NRL’s fastest men already, the Sea Eagles will have a potent backline in 2022.
12 minutes into the clash the Raiders were attacking the Sea Eagles line, when a Jack Wighton pass was caught by Saab, who sprinted away for the try.
Raiders fullback Xavier Savage made chase but only got within 10m after Saab switched off with 25m still to run.
“Saab’s got (Savage) covered and then some,” Andrew Voss screamed on Fox League. “Is he the fastest in the competition? He’ll tell you he is and he shut it down like a dragracer well short of the quarter mile.”
Voss said he spoke to Saab and he said he was confident he could beat any other player.
Corey Parker added: “It must be a nice feeling that nobody, nobody on the field can catch you.”
Code Sports Lachlan McKirdy tweeted: “Throwing an intercept to Jason Saab and watching him run 90m in about second gear is a pretty rough way to start a pre-season game.
Fox Sports’ Cody Kaye added: “Hot damn it’s good seeing Saab pin em. Looks like he’s got like five more gears too”.
But Koula was not about to be outdone, Koula pounced on a long range chance as well, racing 70m to make the Raiders pay for a Wighton fumble.
And hilariously, Saab was running right next to him and was the first player to catch him after he scored the try.
“Lock it in Eddie: the fastest right side we’ve ever seen in rugby league,” Voss said.
Parker said: “We’ve ever seen? That’s a massive call.”
Voss continued: “This is something special Manly fans — and all league fans — that we get to see this young talent. But for Manly fans in particular. If this develops in the maroon and white, you are in for some serious entertainment.”
Chuck in the “fastest man on the planet” in Josh Addo-Carr and the man who beat him in a race to the line last year in Storm recruit Xavier Coates and we got ourselves and 100m sprint.
But while the Manly flyers starred in the first half, the Raiders hit back after going 16-6 down at the half.
Two tries saw the Raiders hit the lead 18-16.
That was when the heavens opened and the rain pelted down.