The Wests Tigers took control early on in Round 21 against the Parramatta Eels at ANZ Stadium and never looked back, recording a well deserved 15-point victory.
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Tries to David Nofoaluma and Mitchell Moses in the first quarter of an hour sent the Tigers into the lead, and their defence held solid for the entirety of the game to hand them the victory.
The Tigers would go on to take nearly every opportunity possible to score points – ending with a trio of penalty goals and a field goal, all to Mitchell Moses who played a blinder of a game.
Moses was quite probably the best on ground as he controlled the Tigers attack, added a stack of creativity and stepped up in the second half when his halves partner Luke Brooks went down with a medial ligament strain and couldn’t return from the sheds.
Moses was well supported by James Tedesco who did his normal thing, making plenty of metres and busting the line, running the ball with excellence, while the forwards led the charge well – Josh Aloiai was a terror on the right edge.
The Eels did have to weather an early storm and constant increases in effort from an Eels side who simply refused to go away no matter what happened or what situation the game was in.
Daniel Alvaro and Tim Mannah started the game strongly, before Danny Wicks and David Gower continued things off the bench, keeping the Eels in the contest but they struggled for creativity and direction in the halves with Jeff Robson and Clint Gutherson struggling to create anything as they have done in previous weeks.
The Eels got on the board first with a penalty goal, before the Tigers opened the try scoring through David Nofoaluma. Following an offload about 30 metres out, Mitchell Moses would go straight through the line before throwing a brilliant pass to the wing for Nofoaluma on his way to ground, crossing in the corner.
It was the very next set when the Tigers were able to extend their lead as they made a long range break, Moses putting Aloiai through the line with an inside ball before Tedesco finished it off next to the uprights.
The Tigers would then miss a penalty goal and convert another to take the lead out to two converted tries.
Parramatta would capitalise on some errors at the back end of the first half from the Tigers though as Vai Toutai crossed. The Tigers had far too many players around the play and a couple of good decoy runs allowed Jeff Robson and Clint Gutherson to put Toutai over in the corner.
The second half was a relatively bland affair, with the Eels not scoring a point and the Tigers just a single try to go with a couple of penalty goals and a field goal.
The game seemed to get sloppy, with neither team executing plays on offence although credit must go to the defence of both teams for shutting down plenty of plays.
Mitchell Moses continued to control things for the Tigers and it would be the 64th minute before he put over the first penalty goal, taking the lead to eight and just six minutes later for the second penalty goal.
The Tigers would roll back down field with ease though, and saw Sauaso Sue cross next to the goal posts with a barge over effort.
Moses would finish things off with a field goal just a couple of minutes from times with errors from both teams ruining the back end of the game.
All in all though, an impressive performance from the Tigers and one they will have to replicate every week from here on out if they want to feature in September.
Final score
Parramatta Eels 8
Wests Tigers 23
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