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Parramatta have squeaked past the Titans after a Mitchell Moses field goal – and a fluffed late attempt from Tanah Boyd – saw the Eels record a vital 25-24 win.
The Eels were lucky on several occasions, but just about had enough. It took a fast start, a miracle try from Clint Gutherson and a spot of leniency from referee Chris Butler to get there in the end, as Reagan Campbell-Gillard avoided a send off after dropping his knees on Chris Randall.
In a topsy-turvy game, Parramatta had just about enough to get them to the win and, at this stage of the year, that will be all that matters.
“Crazy game of footy, I don’t know where to start,” said Brad Arthur.
“They’re acts of foul play and they’re sin bins, as long as it goes both ways. I thought it (the Campbell-Gillard incident) was sloppy. There’s no malice.
“It’s hard to win and we did it with 11 players. There’s plenty of things I could be critical of but we want to focus on winning a tight game that’s going to be crucial at the end of the year.
“It’s icing the big moments. At the start of the year we probably weren’t, but Mitchy is now and that’s probably the difference in the result.”
Arthur will count the cost, however, as Campbell-Gillard will surely be banned and Maika Sivo, who has been a regular attendee at the judiciary this year, was also binned.
The period of 13 v 11 was what brought the contest closer – the Gold Coast scored twice – and outwith that, Parra were generally the better team.
The Titans, again, were let down by their defence with several tries that they will see as preventable. As a result of this, they are now all-but assured to miss the Finals and will spend the rest of the season agonising over the futures of Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and David Fifita.
Interim coach Jim Lenihan was less than pleased with the refereeing, particularly a penalty against Tino Fa’asuamaleaui for a raised ball-carrying arm and a non-call of a late offside as Boyd missed his field goal, though he refrained from commenting on the decision not to sent Campbell-Gillard off.
“He did nothing wrong on that occasion,” said the coach. “It certainly wasn’t bad enough for Moses to fall to the ground. Tino’s being targeted in that situation a little bit.
“When we’re having a field goal last week (against the Dolphins), we got penalised but I think (this week) they’re clearly offside. The other week against Canberra we got a try pulled back for a knock on, this week they knock on and get their advantage left to play and score.”
CommBank Stadium has seen a fair bit of numerical differences over the years.
Saturday saw the Wallabies turn up with 15-a-side, while the stadium has also hosted the rugby union World Sevens, the Rugby League World Nines and a host of eleven-a-side soccer matches.
It can now add 11-man rugby league to that, after a late first half brain fade from two of Parramatta’s biggest names saw them reduced by two late in the first half.
First, Sivo found himself out of the game following a crunching high shot on Jojo Fifita, before Campbell-Gillard left after dropping his knees into a tackle.
Neither could argue with Butler’s decision and, indeed, Campbell-Gillard might secretly have been happy to only have got ten. It was a totally avoidable shot, and while one can’t judge intent, it certainly did not look accidental.
In that time period, the lead that the Eels had accumulated disappeared through tries to Philip Sami and Alofiana Khan-Pereira.
Both sides could complain about Butler’s performance – the crowd certainly didn’t like it – but he was merely responding to what the players were serving up.
Tino Fa’asuamaleaui queried his calls on several occasions, but also hit RCG with a clear shoulder charge, then smashed Moses with a forearm while carrying the ball, exactly in the manner that he has been warned about multiple times by the judiciary.
Parra also tested his patience via repeated set restarts and might have had another man visit the bin during a period in which they were hanging on late in the first half.
Butler was largely in control of proceedings and, by the end, the players had cleaned up their act. He could have been a lot harsher earlier, however.
These are two of the best starting teams in the comp, albeit two with a commensurate ability to fade away: Parra are great when their starting middles are on, but can fall off a cliff when they aren’t, while the Titans love a second half collapse.
This looked like going completely to script. The Eels took the lead through two tries that, realistically, decent defences usually stop.
The first, a simple one pass crash play off the ruck for Campbell-Gillard, was a perfect encapsulation of why the Gold Coast will be in Bali in September.
The second, for Will Penisini, was a little more complex and required something of a lucky bounce, but was still an eminently preventable last tackle play.
Yet the Eels kept up their side of the bargain. They had already conceded before losing the two men to the bin, with their traditional midgame fade kicking in.
The Titans’ tackling can be questionable, and the second half proved that their best form of defence is attack. They were able to play far enough from their own line for it not to be a problem.
It worked for a bit, but no sooner did the Eels get any field position, they scored. The first was, again, a soft one – Bryce Cartwright from dummy half – and the second again preventable, although Gutherson pulled off a miracle to get it down.
It’ll be close, but no cigar again for the Gold Coast. They blew their last chance last week against the Dolphins, but this underlined their issues yet further.