Manly has surrendered a 20-point lead to be run down 24-20 by a Jarryd Hayne-inspired Eels side in a thrilling Sunday afternoon contest at Parramatta Stadium.

After leading the Tigers 20-4 last week and losing, the Sea Eagles were handed yet another gutting defeat as Hayne ran riot to have a hand in all but one of the Eels’ four tries in the second half.

It was a complete turnaround by the hosts after they leaked four straight tries of their own on the back of woeful handling and poor discipline in the first 40 minutes.

Manly looked well on the way to its first competition points of the season when prop Matthew Cross was on the spot to take the score to 20-0 just two minutes after the break.

But Parramatta suddenly clicked into gear when Fuifui Moimoi barrelled his way over some soft goal-line defence from a penalty tap 10 minutes later.

Hayne gave the comeback even more impetus on the hour mark when he received a pass from Luke Burt in his own in-goal and beat five players in a scintillating 70 metre dash which ended with an off-load to Timana Tahu to sprint the rest of the way.

Tahu’s first try since his return to the NRL was backed up by another 12 minutes later on the back of a Hayne chip and chase, with Kris Keating’s blatantly forward pass putting Joel Reddy under the posts to make it 20-18.

Hayne popped up again to win the game for the Eels with three minutes left, his pinpoint cut-out pass finding Eric Grothe on the right wing to give Parra a remarkable come-from-behind victory.

Manly coach Des Hasler was clearly fuming at the decision to let play continue for Parra’s third try and could land himself in hot water.

“I’ll personally pay for those two touchies to visit OPSM and get a check up,” he said post match.

“Because I don’t know if we reverted to gridiron, not once, but twice at a critical part of the game, ” he added referring to both Hayne’s pop pass to Keating and the final ball to Reddy.

Any chance of an Eels win looked unlikely after they produced a terrible first half littered with 10 knock-ons and five penalties, many of which were in their own half, as well as two kicks out on the full.

Manly took full advantage, completing all of its first 13 sets to open up an intimidating 14-0 lead thanks to tries from debutant Trent Hodkinson, former Eel Tony Williams and pivot Jamie Lyon.

Tahu was in particular found out in defence, falling for a second man decoy for Williams’s try from a scrum base move before a poor read let Lyon dart through from close range.

When Cross scooped up a loose grubber to touch down next to the posts at the start of the second half, the lead seamed insurmountable for the Eels.

But the hosts proved true the old saying of a tale of two halves, making only three mistakes as they improved their completion rate to 87 per cent to throw the shell-shocked Sea Eagles on the back foot.

Hayne then single-handedly took the contest by the scruff of the neck with his hard running and ball play as he mirrored his heroics from late last season.

It was the third match of the weekend where a side has given away a substantial lead to lose after the Panthers led the Cowboys 20-8 and the Knights had a 14-0 advantage over Melbourne.

Eels: 24 (F Moimoi, T Tahu, J Reddy, E Grothe tries; L Burt 4/4 conversions)

Sea Eagles: 20 (T Hodkinson, T Williams, J Lyon, M Cross tries; J Lyon 2/4 conversions)