It was deja vu when Parramatta again went down by two points to Newcastle in a wet, low-scoring affair at Newcastle that almost mirrored precisely last year’s contest.
In miserable, slippery conditions, the Eels absorbed plenty of early pressure after conceding a number of unnecessary penalties. However, an error by late replacement Ryan Morgan - who came into the side at the expense of young Jacob Loko - saw Parramatta defending their line again and this time it was too much for them to hold out. A backline movement saw the Eel’s outnumbered and Luke Burt charged in to cut off the play however failed to make contact with Wes Naquama, and with the inside defence also failing to cover up, the Newcastle centre was able to go over basically untouched. Gidley converted to give Newcastle an early six to nil lead.
Parramatta went close to striking back when Chris Walker went through a gap created by a Jarryd Hayne inside pass, however Walker’s pass out to a supporting Jeff Robson was ruled forward. However, in trying to stop Robson, Newcastle half Jarrod Mullen suffered a suspected torn pectoral muscle, leaving the Knights without their key playmaker.
The Eels finally got a bit of possession in good territory towards the end of the half but with the ball difficult to control in the wet conditions, we were unable to put any points on the board and went into half-time trailing by six.
The early stages of the first half was an arm-wrestle, punctuated by more Parramatta penalties, one of which - a soft high-tackle penalty against Fuifui Moimoi - resulted in a further two-points for Newcastle. However, they got right back into the game when a Jeff Robson bomb contested by Jarryd Hayne and Kurt Gidley bounced back to Casey McGuire who dived on the loose ball for Parramatta’s first try on the sixty minute mark. Burt converted to leave the Eels trailing by just two points at eight points to six.
Any momentum the Eels might have taken out of that try, was dampened when Jarryd Hayne knocked on from the kick-off, however they were able to hold out the Knights, which they did time-and-time again throughout the half, albeit helped by a pretty limp Newcastle defence.
With ten minutes to go, the Eels finally were able to amount sustained pressure and looked to have scored the match winner when Chris Walker dived for a Jarryd Hayne grubber but the video referee adjudged that Walker knocked on when trying to ground the ball, leaving the Eels with just three minutes to pull a rabbit out of the hat.
Alas, Parramatta was unable to produce any last-minute magic this time and Newcastle were able to hang-in and secure the win.
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is this game being streamed online i cant find anything
Parra will not win this game, nothing in attack and the refs hate us tonight
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