‘One of the best I’ve seen’: Manu enters record books with monster effort

A colossal 401-metre running effort against Mate Ma’a Tonga on Saturday saw Roosters star Joseph Manu enter the record books and led his captain to label it one of the most impressive performances he has seen from a fullback.

In wet conditions at Mt Smart Stadium, Manu was outstanding at the back for the Kiwis in a 26-6 victory, carrying the ball 32 times for a yardage haul which surpassed Parramatta skipper Clint Gutherson’s effort of 369 metres in round 14, 2020 against the Dragons.

Having shared a field with the likes of Billy Slater, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck throughout his career, it takes a fair bit for a fullback to impress Bromwich, but the 30-Test veteran didn’t mince his words post-match.

“One of the best performances I have seen from a fullback,” Bromwich said.

“He’s a different sort of body to guys I have played with in the past with different strengths, but it was right up there.

“Beating defenders one on one, bringing the ball back with aggression, it’s really nice to see as a forward when they put a kick in behind and you turn around and your fullback is just flying back and getting rid of people whenever he felt like it.”

One of the world’s best centres, Manu has played fullback just once this year at club level, stepping in for New South Wales custodian James Tedesco in Round 13.

While pleased with his performance, Manu said he can improve ahead of the end-of-year World Cup.

“There were times there in the second half, especially at the back end there, I was struggling, I was blowing, so it did feel like I was running a bit,” Manu said.

“I think I can improve, connecting up with my halves (better), there’s a lot of improvement there, but I don’t really play fullback regularly, so I think it was pretty good for being back there again.”

For Kiwis coach Michael Maguire the performance effectively ends any debate about who should fill the New Zealand No.1 jersey long term, following the departure of Tuivasa-Sheck to rugby union last year.

While he singled Manu out for praise, Maguire pointed to a strong team effort in the victory which allowed him to rack up such impressive numbers.

Every member of New Zealand’s back five ran for over 100 metres against Tonga, along with four forwards, including a strong debut off the bench for Penrith enforcer Moses Leota.

“They all laid a platform for each other. Joey was catching the ball on the full off the back of really good kick pressure. Every forward worked really hard in that department to allow Joey to get it and run the ball back,” Maguire said.

“[Joey] hasn’t been playing too often at club land, so if he can turn up and do that each time I’m going to be pretty happy with that.”