Eels Blogs

This is the shot that shows you that Parramatta are a different side under Ricky Stuart. It's taken seconds before Ken Sio goes over in the corner.

You can see Jarryd Hayne with his hands in the air, asking why he didn’t get the ball. However, Matt Keating’s decision to go the blindside where Joseph Paulo will feed Reni Maitua, who in turn puts Sio over, proves to be the correct one.

While he may have scored three tries, Jarryd Hayne was not the man for the Eels. Rather, it demonstrates a key difference to how Stuart has approached this side. The former number seven clearly wants his halfback running the show and that resulted in a dominant display from Chris Sandow - the first we’ve really seen from him in a Blue and Gold jersey.

What we got from Hayne instead was much more a traditional fullback performance, sniffing off the shoulder of Sandow and popping up in support when needed. It’s been just one of the things that Parramatta has missed so desperately over the past three years.

Steven Kearney and Daniel Anderson before him both fell half-pregnant to Hayne. With the reality that Hayne’s able to create tries like no other in the team, they handed him primary playmaker responsibility without moving him to a playmaker position. When Jarryd wanted the ball, like in that above shot, he got it. What got sacrificed was not only our back-up play, but the confidence of our halves who never got to truly run the show.

When Stuart ignored Hayne for Origin and suggested he’d become a six, he showed his distaste for the Parramatta structure. He clearly wants his fullback to play like a fullback and his halves to carry the responsibility for leading the time around.

What was also really pleasing to see was some really nice attacking shapes. This try sees Keating note that the Warriors defence down the left has failed to shuffle across and the Eels have an overlap situation. Jospeh Paulo’s versatility means he can play as an alternate first receiver, feeding the ball to Roberts. Interestingly, Loko and Maitua swap roles with Loko coming inside to play the decoy run allowing Maitua to slip arount the back and with his classy ball skills he makes no mistake to draw and pass to Sio. That’s a pretty intimidating attacking line and the side’s two main attacking weapons - Hayne and Sandow are nowhere to be seen, which is perhaps why the Warriors weren’t overly concerned about numbering up down that side.

Chris Sandow arrives

Welcome to Parramatta Chris Sandow. Who knows what was the issue last year. Maybe the above, maybe fitness, maybe confidence or off-field problems. For the first time, we really got to see the real Chris Sandow stand-up.

What a joy it was to see a Parramatta halfback consistently trouble the line. It’s something we haven’t had since... honestly, I can’t even remember. Maybe, Tim Smith’s debut season before he forgot how to run. The result of that is defences have had too easy a time defending against Parramatta. They’ve been able to slide early and it’s left our outside men with little room to move. You see the game clearly open up for the Eels as the game wears on, with Sandow having caused havoc in the middle.

As good as Sandow’s running game was, his kicking was equally impressive. Stuart clearly told Sandow to kick long and kick early and the strategy worked, even with a couple of 40/20 attempts just missing. Parramatta’s handling was pretty bad, but they didn’t give up too much ball working the ball out of their own area.

I thought Parramatta’s attack picked up noticeably when Ben Roberts, who we have dubbed in the Swarm ‘Rocks, Diamonds, Roberts’ replaced Luke Kelly. Roberts should retain his spot in the side on that performance, with Kelly - who was pretty quiet in the opening 30 - shifting to the bench given he has performed well as a relief hooker previously.

Our boys are growing up

Our young outside backs delivered an incredibly mature performance, and I think its fair to say that Willie Tonga is almost certainly going to have to bide his time playing for Wentworthville until an injury opens up a slot. Jacob Loko is quite simply a beast. I was worried about the size of Konrad Hurrell but New Zealand had far more trouble dealing with Loko than Parramatta did with Hurrell. If Loko stays fit he will come into Origin calculations this year, in my opinion. Meanwhile Ryan Morgan, continues to mature. He’s a just a smart, dedicated football with great athletic ability and his in and away to set up Matt Ryan, again had one casting their mind back to Jamie Lyon’s early Parramatta performances. Cheyse Blair who has struggled defensively came up with some really good positioning to blot out a number of Warrior opportunities with intercepts and Ken Sio is a class finisher. The boys all brought the ball back strongly and coped pretty well in D. I’m sure they’ll get tougher tests this year from sides that move the ball around better but it was a great start to the year for all four of them.

The opposition

There’s no escaping the fact that New Zealand were woeful. One wonders if the Leuluai try hadn’t of been butchered whether they would have got some confidence up and been a different outfit, but clearly they’re missing Maloney badly. They struggled to string together any meaningful series of passes and seldom really tested the Eels defence. They tried to replace coherance with ad-lib skill and too often the likes of Johnson and Mateo overplayed their hand and made mistakes. Obviously losing Vatuvai early in the piece hurt them a lot and when they finally did get any decent ball movement happening they were able to score a couple of pretty easy tries. Those tries where we’re unable to stop a runner on our try-line have been way too common for Parramatta and Ricky Stuart is going to have to get his side to work harder off their tryline because we’ve got too many defensive players without the size to stop dead a hard-running attacker.

The forward battle

The early minutes went to New Zealand but as the game wore on the Parramatta pack got well on top of their Warrior counterparts. Tim Mannah was immense. He used his great strength to continually push through the New Zealand defence. His partnership with Mitchell Allgood, who’s leg speed impressed is going to be a good one. On the flipside Fuifui Moimoi and Darcy Lussick also complement each other with Moimoi agains averaging around 10 metres per hitup as he invariably does. With both duos, you have one very strong player and the other with impressive speed. Reni Maitua was incredibly dangerous and Matt Ryan made a good contribution.

HOW IT HAPPENED

0m: Dominant set by Warriors
2m: Drop ball by Loko and then penalty
3m: Johnson throws ball to Blair and then Warriors give up a penalty
4m: Mannah mistake after tough set, and then penalty from Keating for hold down the ball
5m: Leuilua should have scored. Todd Lowrie crazy move
6m: Mannah dropped ball, hands possession immediately back
7m: Mateo turnover gives Parra ball back
8m: Maitua half-break and then Mateo compounded problem holding ball down
9m: Eels on the attack and Warriors give another six for second effort
10m. Strong run from Mannah, Hayne sends ball wide to Blair who drops ball over the line
11m: Good control in ruck via Keating and Warriors end sloppy set with kick to Hayne
12m: Chris Sandow early 60m kick to boot Eels out of trouble, close to 40/20
13m: Solid Warriors set ends with kick to sideline
14m: Half-break by Hayne and Eels get ball back after Keating kick bounces back to Sandow
15m: Eels given penalty and elect to play ball.
16m: EELS TRY! Sandow jinks through opposition to open the scoring for Eels
17m: Sandow converts. Vatuvai leaves field
18m: Another penalty for hand on the ball from Warriors give Parra good field position
19m: Incorrect call against Ken Sio lets pressure off
20m: Warriors solid set and get a decent kick off at the end of set
21m: Nice run from Ryan, before Mannah short pass to Sandow results in turnover. Lussick on.
22m: Warriors opportunity but Locke final pass is poor. Johnson kicks into in goal but Hayne gets it out
23m: Strong run by Maitua but he loses it, to hand possession straight back
25m: Poor set on attack, Warriors knock on cross-field kick
26m: EELS TRY! Maitua line-break, passes one-handed to Luke Kelly, Hayne is support for try under posts
27m. Sandow converts. Paulo on for Smith
28m: Strong set ends with decent Sandow kick
29m. Luky Kelly injured with hamstring strain
30m. Decent set from Warriors but kick at end goes over deadball
31m. Eels work ball back but Ben Roberts ordinary kick at ends fails to create pressure
32m: Non-threatening set from Warriors ended with average bomb fielded by Sio who returns kick over the half-way mark. Warriors give away another penalty
33m. Lussick drops flatball online, Warrios make half-break but Blair makes desperate tackle
34m. Johnson kicks into in-goal, Blair does well to return ball out to field of play. Loko and Roberts make big metres up-field
35m. EELS TRY! Nice vision from Keating at dummy half to spread-ball wide, to Paulo and then Hayne, who put Morgan into a 2 on 1 whereby Morgan turned inside out his opposite before finding Ryan on the inside
37m. Strong runs by Moimoi, Lussick and Keating before Sandow just missed out on 40/20.
38m. Half-break from Warriors running over Sandow but again poor pass from Leuial. Average kick puts Eels on little pressure
39m. Half-break from Morgan sends Eels out of trouble. Attempted shortball from Paulo doesn’t find its mark and half-ends.
40m: Eels start half with a strong kick from Roberts on 4th tackle
41m: Warriors work their way down field and finish with high bomb, that is not fielded and Loko grabs but is stripped by Simon Mannerging
42m: Warriors immediately drop ball.
43m: Sandow again kicks early and just misses 40/20.
44m: Warriors drop ball again in play the ball
45m: Let-off for Eels, Maitua dropped ball but Eels get penalty for shoulder-charge
46m: Blindside play and Roberts overthrows pass behind Sio
47m. Warriors get penalty for strip on Mateo
48m. Blair intercepts Mateo pass that would have led to try
49m. Eels opened up a little with a strong dummy half run and Ben Robers concedes penalty
50m. Warriors looking better with Godinet at dummy half, and the little interchange hooker takes advantage of some ordinary Ben Roberts defence who failed to get back and off his line
52m: Good early defence from Blair but Warriors recover, kick to Hayne who returns to 30
53m: Sandow goes over but try is disallowed after Fuifui Moimoi obstruction
55m: Warriors should score again but final Johnson try again finds the ground.
56m: WARRIORS TRY! Warriors target Sandow in defence and Neilsen
58m: Good set by Warriors. Kick to Hayne who returns to near 30m.
59m: Good metres by Smith before set ends with Hayne bomb that the Warriors spill. Eels back with ball
60m: Sandow earns repeat set for Eels with great grubber into in-goal
62m: EELS TRY! Parramatta score in corner after setting up nicely on the left-side and Maitua did well to suck in winger, leaving Sio unmarked to score in the corner.
64m: Sandow converts from touch. Big first hit-up from Allgood.
65m. EELS TRY! Sandow after doing the old hand flick to signal to come inside, accelerates and breaks through the defence before turning inside to Jarryd Hayne who scores under the post.
67m: Sandow converts
68m. EELS TRY! Jacob Loko breaks a couple of tackles, then hands inside to Maitua who finds Hayne
69m: Sandow makes is six from six
71m: Hayne brushes off a tackle and finds space but attempts a no-look pass meant to find Blair and instead finds touch
73m: Warriors kick for winger, but Hayne shepherds ball over touch
75m: Warriors attack but there is no way through the Eels defence. Loko cramps.
76m: EELS TRY! Sandow grubber for Cheyse Blair is collected by Warriors but Sandow takes an intercept and the ball is immediately spun wide to Ben Roberts who kicks for Sio, who shows great pace to gather in ball and score.
79m: Sandow misses his first kick
80m: Roberts kicks the ball over the sideline to seal a 30 point victory for the Eels.