Opinion
Well, if you thought that the Parramatta Eels weren’t premiership contenders, then surely now you can admit that they’re up there with the best teams in the competition.
Before I go on, I would like to say well done to Michael Jennings on scoring his 150th career try against his former club the Roosters. But it was all undone after he was deliberately offside and was sent to the sin bin in the final 11 minutes.
I know the Eels lost 24-10 but James Tedesco was missing for the last 25 minutes and couldn’t come back on after heavy contact from winger Maika Sivo.
Clint Gutherson was very good with 254 running metres, one tackle break, one line break and no errors. Veteran Michael Jennings showed a lot of footwork against his opposing centre Joey Manu and managed to score a great try and produce a try assist to Sivo.
Mitchell Moses’ kicking game was very good at times with 297 kick metres and five-eighth Dylan Brown set up one try to Jennings.
Luke Keary combined very well with Boyd Cordner to set up a try for the veteran second-rower and Kyle Flanagan kicked for 390 metres and kicked six out of seven conversions.
(Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Siosiua Taukeiaho had a very good game with 203 running metres, 24 tackles and no errors, while Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was also very strong with 154 running metres and 32 tackles.
Jake Friend’s defence in the middle was very resilient with 43 tackles for four misses. Well done to Friend for playing 250 games.
The Eels finished the game with 49 per cent possession but a 72 per cent completion rate, which really let them down. They made 20 odd more tackles than the Roosters, missed 11 more tackles, conceded seven penalties and coughed up 11 errors.
Reed Mahoney topped the tackles list with 52, Gutherson had the most running metres with 254 and Josh Morris had the most line breaks with three throughout the game.
The Eels hit the front with 25 minutes to go after a Sivo try. Then all of a sudden the Eels dropped off and the Roosters made them pay for it after putting on two quick tries through Boyd Cordner and Daniel Tupou.
The Eels sit on top of the ladder with ten points and for the first time in 2020 the Roosters have gone into the top four, which really shows how the COVID-19 break helped the Roosters.
Next week, the Eels take on another premiership contender in the Raiders, who are currently sitting fifth with players like Jack Wighton, Jarrod Croker and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad. Meanwhile, the Roosters take on the Dragons. Let’s pray the Dragons don’t get a flogging.
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