Parramatta winger Semi Radradra has broken a 60-year record in his side’s strong 28-16 win over the Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium on Monday night.
An irresistible Radradra bagged a second-half brace – his fifth double in five games – and had a hand in another as the Eels made it three wins on the trot.
Not since Newtown’s Ray Preston in 1954 has a player scored five doubles in five games.
It caps off a positive week for the club that included the signing of prized recruit Kieran Foran.
The Tigers led 16-12 when Radradra soared over Kevin Naiqama to give his side the lead in the 58th minute.
The flying Fijian then repeated the effort and offloaded to Sandow in the 68th, before he received a Sandow pass to complete the record in the 73rd.
His two tries now gives him 11 tries in five games and 16 for the season, tying him with Canterbury’s Curtis Rona as the league’s leading tryscorer.
Parramatta’s Tim Mannah was the unlikely source of first points after he crashed over in the 12th minute for his first try since 2012.
Teammate Luke Kelly made it two in two minutes when he and Sandow exchanged passes in the backfield following Corey Norman’s one-handed offload.
But the Eels switched off after that, allowing the home side to post three consecutive tries and take an unlikely 16-12 lead at the main break.
First Naiqama stood up Radradra in the 20th minute before latching onto a James Tedesco grubber six minutes after that.
Tedesco then gave his side the lead when he bounced off three defenders to pop an offload that ended in Pat Richards crossing in the 34th.
Eels centre Brad Takairangi was put on report for a shoulder charge on Tedesco in the first half, while Tigers forward Martin Taupau will also come under scrutiny for a high shot on Radradra in the second.
Eels coach Brad Arthur said he gave his team a stern talking-to at the halftime break after giving up their early lead.
“We turned up here after a couple of quick tries and thought we could just cruise to a soft win,” he said.
“Our attitude wasn’t where it needed to be in defence. They scored a couple of soft tries. (And) in the second half, we didn’t play smart. We played dumb.
“But at least in the second half we had a change of attitude towards our commitment to putting our bodies on the line and running a bit harder and making our tackles.”
Tigers coach Jason Taylor said he had issues with a caning in the penalty count that heavily skewed possession towards the Eels but was pleased with the effort from a weakened 17.
“Simply the weight of possession. 12-4 penalty count for the game, 41 sets to 29 – simple as that,” he said.
“We made something like 75 more tackles. (It was) disappointing on the scoreboard but we’ve been talking all year about performance.
“We’ve been looking for performances and that was a really strong one tonight under really tough conditions in the way that the opposition kept getting penalties and we got hardly any and it was tough.
“I need to go and have a look at (the penalties).
“There’s a tackle and the ball comes out and nobody can tell what happened so we’ll have a look at that and I’ll talk to Tony Archer about that situation and it’s as simple as that.”
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