Parramatta's baby Eels went down 32 to 12 against the Dragons, sunk by a combination of rookie defensive errors and amateurish mistakes by our playmakers.
The Dragons clearly came into the match with a plan to target Parramatta's right fringe and Kelepi Tanginoa and new centre Apit Pewrairangi were found wanting early. Tanginoa gave away a poor penalty for hand on the ball, that put the Dragons on the attack immediately, and then Trent Merrin stepped Tanginoa before brushing aside Pewrairangi to score in the opening minutes.
Ben Creagh then did likewise with Pewrairangi again unable to stop the international second rower and the Dragons took an early 12 to nil lead. The Eels then began to compress to compensate for their issues on the fringes and Jamie Soward exploited that, first with a cut-out pass that put Daniel Vidot across untouched. He tried the same move agains as the end of the first-half wound down, and while it wasn't as well executed Vidot proved too strong for Vai Toutai and three helpers to barge his way to the tryline and complete a 20 to nil first half whitewash.
While our right-side edge was being demolished, the Eels were getting pummelled in the forwards, with the Dragons winning the majority of collisions as subsequently they were able to get consistent roll forward and fast play the balls, which had the Eels defence on their heels the entire first forty.
The Eels were more competitive in the second half, but their cause wasn't helped by a series of forward passes and ordinary decisions from their playmakers that continually let the pressure off the Dragons. New Dragons fullback Josh Dugan had already had a big influence on the first-half but his influence only grew in the second half, scoring two tries and having another disallowed.
Peni Terepo, not only scored his first NRL try, he then made it a double. The first came from Joseph Paulo putting Chris Sandow through a gap with an inside pass while the next saw Terepo demonstrate some nice footwork to go with his hard-running.
While, the Eels were never in the match, Parramatta fans should accept that Ricky Stuart is clearly using the rest of this year to blood players. While that is going to cause problems that other teams will exploit, as the Dragons did targeting our right fringe, we're also seeing some really promising performances. As well as a terrific performance from Terepo, Kaysa Pritchard was dynamic out of dummy half and Junior Paulo had a solid debut. Tim Mannah was exceptional, and he will have put himself into the frame for Origin with that performance.
Replies
I think we just don't have a quality side, and alot of us will jump at any cause to make excuses. That's easier than facing the harsh reality of a team in need of overhaul. As soon as Sticky dumped Roberts and Smith I knew the "we're inexperienced" line would soon rear it's head after losses. We were already losing consistently prior to blooding a few juniors, remember?!
PS: I'll probably start prattling about baby eels in a few weeks, when the impending 2013 Spoon makes me seriously deposed and I need a silver lining!
Four NYC players, for a start. Two 19 yos, two 20 yos. And you combine that with Api and Peni playing just their third or so matches - that's more than a third of the side who are total, utter bona fide rookies. You can carry maybe two of those guys, not one third of your side.
P.S. I'm not saying there aren't issues. We win a terribly low percentage of rucks. The only player who consistently wins his ruck is Mannah while teams too easily roll over the top of us. That forces them to try and slow down the ruck illegally rather than legally, and so we give away penalties and it exacerbates the problem.
Not worth the coin he is getting.
Welcome to the site northcoast eel.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next