The Eels knocked over Souths 22 to eight to give Nathan Hindmarsh a fitting result as it overtook Brett Kenny to become the most-capped Eel in the history of the club.
It wasn't looking a likely result in the first half, which was probably just as ordinary as any of the terible first stanzas produced this year. Despite being given plenty of opportunities by Souths, who were not much better, the Eels continually turned over the ball with poor hands and awful cohesion.
Our playmakers looked all at sea and the ball just never seemed to go where it needed to go, with Jarryd Hayne having little quality possession and key players like Feleti Mateo and Timana Tahu hardly sighting the pill.
Meanwhile, in defence Krisnan Inu was all at sea. He rushed up on a simple backline movement and left a massive overlap that Souths easily exploited with their winger going over in the corner. Isaac Luke failed to convert but again we had conceded the first try and it was an all too familiar feeling for Eels fans.
That feeling in the pit of the stomach kept building as we dropped more ball and continued to look amateurish in attack and when Souths finally got an attacking opportunity they again scored a soft try with Colin Best brushing off Inu and going in for the second try.
The Eels haven't met too many teams this year, that have underperformed but despite coming up with the first two tries the Bunnies were playing down to our level and gradually were playing us into the match. Tim Mannah was pulled up just short of the line, after he had sparked the initial attacking opportunity with a charge down. Timana Tahu was also brought down just short of the line and then with seconds left on the clock and hard on the attack, Souths gave away a pretty deliberate penalty and Luke Burt was able to land a difficult penalty to put us within a converted try.
That glimmer of hope and whatever Daniel Anderson said at half time, did wonders and it was a totally different outfit that resumed in the second stanza.
Jarryd Hayne got heavily involved from the word go and produced a great deep kick, which was followed up with a magnificent chase from Luke Burt and the Eels trapped Souths in goal to put themselves immediately on the attack. They were then able to produce
There could be no more significant representation of the Eel's change of fortunes when Daniel Mortimer produced a pin-point kick that sat up in goal, and Bunnies fullback Rhys Wesser showed no urgency in comparison to Luke Burt, who showed great pace and determination to ground the ball before Wesser could clear it.
Burt again converted and suddenly we were six in front. We would then take the opportunity to extend that advantage to eight through a simple Luke Burt penalty and not only did we now have a nice lead but we were actually looking like a quality football team again.
Both teams had chances. Moimoi dropped the ball attempting to reach out and put down the ball down over his head and then Wesser blew a chance by going himself when he had an unmarked winger.
We then had a bizarre turn of events that saw Nathan Cayless sin-binned for a strip he didn't make and then South's Beau Champion sin-binned for a high-tackle that wasn't high. Those decisions really sucked the momentum out of the game but when it eventually got going again, we produced some of our customary second phase play and Daniel Mortimer went in next to the play off the back of it.
Tim Mannah was unbelievable today and Justin Poore was very good as well. Those two forwards, with good support from Justin Horo, dragged us back into this game and then in the second half we finally got the kind of performance we've been looking for from our halves with Daniel Mortimer producing his most confident and accomplished half of football this year and Kris Keating looked dangerous and producing some quality kicks. Jarryd Hayne was asserting himself when needed and Jeff Robson produced some nice moments from dummy half.
Parramatta fans might want to email Russell Crowe during the week and thank him for his side playing the Eels back into some kind of form. And while you're at it, send a note to Hindy and let him know what a legend he is. Let season 2010 begin.
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Next Friday, Cowboys without Thurston. hahah
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