The first half was as strange a half of football as you might ever see. It began with a trip back to 2009 when Jarryd Hayne went on his unstoppable run that took the Eels all the way to the grand final. In the first 30 minutes, Hayne was just as dominant. In the 6th minute, he sliced through the Bulldogs attack shrugging off a couple of tackles and planting the ball down for the opening try, which Burt converted.
Hayne continued to look threatening, and to further bring back the memories of 2009 he was well supported by Daniel Mortimer who finally brought his running game back out of the closet for probably the first time in more than a year. The Eel’s halves could have done better sustaining the pressure that Parramatta had been building, but the Bulldogs were doing the best to keep the momentum going the Eel’s way with their handling and in the 25th minute Hayne took the ball in a similar position to his first try but this time cut back inside, stepping around two and going over without a hand laid on him. It was a simple conversion from Burt and the Eels were up 12 to nil and looking impressive. Our forwards had laid a strong platform dominating the metres game, allowing Hayne to cut loose and put the Eel’s in charge.
And then the game turned...
Bulldogs forward Corey Payne put a cheap swinging arm on Jarryd Hayne as he lay on the ground, and then followed it up with a gobful. Hayne reacted and lunged toward Payne leading with his head, leading to punches being blown between the two. The referee decided to send both players to the bin, and although Parramatta won the penalty which Burt converted, they certainly came out worse from the exchange given they would have to make do without their best player for the final stages of the half.
Amazingly, they would then have to make do without their two best players when some niggling between Nathan Hindmarsh and Michael Ennis erupted in more punches and again both players were binned turning the contest into an 11 on 11 battle.
That really opened up the match for the Bulldogs and star little men. First it was their diminutive winger Steve Turner who crashed through a couple of defenders to score in the corner. Then Ben Barba stood up Jacob Loko to score and reduce the margin back to 14 to 10 following Bryson Goodwin’s sideline conversion. And then a minute before oranges, centre Tim Lafai brushed off Jeff Robson and the break ended with Barba putting the ball down smack in the corner. The decision went upstairs to the video referee who could only come up with a benefit of the doubt verdict in favour of the Dogs. Goodwin couldn’t repeat his touchline heroics and the scores were tied at half time and Parramatta must have been wondering just what the hell had happened.
And things only got worse. Just three minutes into the second half, Kris Keating jinked across field before turning the ball inside to Jamal Idris who proved just too big and strong hitting the ball at pace. An easier Goodwin conversion made it 20 to 14 and then 22 to 14 when he later nailed a penalty.
The Dogs continued to apply the blowtorch, dominating possession and territory, and without Parramatta managing to apply any counter-pressure it was only going to be a matter of time. That time came went Ben Barba looped around dummy half Michael Ennis and showed blinding pace to simply sprint through the Eel’s defence and push the margin out to 14. The final margin would be 20, when Idris bagged a double - a scoreline nobody could have imagined at the 30 minute mark.
While they looked good for 30 minutes off the back of Tim Mannah and Fuifui Moimoi’s early efforts, and Jarryd Hayne’s brilliance, there were quite a few players out there tonight who failed to stand up when things started to go against them. I’m quite sure Stephen Kearney will have lost patience with more than a few members of his squad tonight.
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Replies
Oh man.
Haynes gotta stop with the headbutting.
If we lose this one after that start I'll be more dissapointed than last week.
looks like hayne will be on holidays
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