Cronulla Sharks beat Manly Sea Eagles 34-22 thanks to Siosifa Talakai first-half dominance

Cronulla centre Siosifa Talakai has reaffirmed his status as one of the most damaging players in the NRL with an unstoppable performance as the Sharks beat Manly.

Cronulla rediscovered their form after last week's loss to Melbourne, with Talakai creating and benefiting from the team's excellence in a 34-22 win, although all the Sharks' brilliance was confined to the first half.

Talakai made his NRL debut back in 2016 with South Sydney but was out of the league after 2017, at one point working as a garbage man, before being given a train-and-trial opportunity in Cronulla before in 2020.

While his first two seasons with the Sharks were strong, in 2022 he is making a case for Dally M centre of the year and he looked the part on Thursday night.

The steamrolling outside back scored two tries and set up three others as the Sharks stormed to a 32-0 half-time lead, with all the points coming down Talakai's left side of the field.

The first points came just 90 seconds into the game, when a shift to the left put Talakai outside his opposite number, Morgan Harper, who was beaten again 15 minutes in when Matt Moylan gave Talakai early ball and he skipped past and through to the tryline.

He appeared set for his hat-trick in the 20th minute when he powered to the outside again, but Harper and wing partner Jason Saab reined him in, only for the Shark to pop a miraculous ball out the back to Ronaldo Mulitalo to score.

Another left-side shift saw Talakai set up Mulitalo on an overlap before the best of the lot, when Talakai stepped inside Harper on the halfway line, charged 40 metres untouched and kept his composure to grubber through for fullback Will Kennedy to score.

Talakai did not touch the ball in the lead-up to the last try in the final