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The Wests Tigers have kept themselves alive and in the hunt to play finals with a 15-point win over the Parramatta Eels.
» Click here to read the full match report
Final score
Eels 8
Tigers 23
The Parramatta Eels will look to put the ongoing off-the-field circus behind them when they take on the struggling Wests Tigers who must find a way to build form and consistency if they want to play in the finals. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 5:30pm (AEST).
The Eels season has been dominated by talk and news of what is happening off the field rather than on it, but they haven’t been playing bad football.
Of course, before the salary cap saga broke over their head, they were right up the top end of the table – things haven’t been as good since then, but they are still going alright and certainly aren’t getting blown out.
Not having Corey Norman, who has been suspended, hurts the club in a big way. They might have been beaten heavily by the Gold Coast Titans last week, but close losses to the Penrith Panthers and Sydney Roosters before hand, with Clint Gutherson doing a strong job in the halves goes to show the resolve of the side.
The Tigers come into this match on the back of a win over the St George Illawarra Dragons last week, but right at the moment that doesn’t say a lot. They only scored 25 points, winning by 13 and most good teams probably would have put 50 on the Dragons.
Their form has been up and down all season, and with off-field issues of their own mainly relating to Robbie Farah they will produce either a good performance on the back of Mitchell Moses, James Tedesco and Luke Brooks, or a terrible one on the back of poor defence and no creativity.
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It’s one or the other for the Tigers more often than not.
With their inconsistency, they find themselves in tenth spot on the ladder, having won eight games and needing to win four of their last six to make the finals, making this game almost must win.
In team news, the Tigers will be unchanged from their win over the Dragons last week while the Eels welcome back Beau Scott and Vai Toutai at the expense of Bureta Faraimo and Cody Nelson.
The teams have already met once this year, way back in Round 4 when the Eels took victory 8-0 at Homebush in what has proved to be one of the worst games this season.
Prediction
This is just a ridiculously important game for the Tigers – they might have won last weekend, but they not only need to build some consistency, but keep winning to give themselves a crack at the finals.
The Eels were ordinary last week and will be looking for a similar turnaround, which we know they have in them. If they can string 80 minutes together, then they will get the job done – the Tigers just don’t look threatening.
Eels by 8.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this Round 21 fixture from 5:30pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below as the action unfolds.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde