The Parramatta Eels have gone down 21-18 in a tough and controversial match. A disallowed try to Will Hopoate has become the talking point following yet more controversy surrounding the obstruction rule.
It was a tough game to lose with the Eels being the better side, scoring four tries to the Tigers' three.
Jarryd Hayne opened the scoring when he crossed in the eighth minute. He made it a double just over 10 minutes later and the Eels led 8-0.
A controversial penalty helped the Tigers down-field with Blake Austin scoring just before half-time. Pat Richards' conversion saw the score 8-6 to the Eels at the break.
The Tigers started the second half with the momentum and a loose offload from Jarryd Hayne saw Luke Brooks race 80 metres and outpace a steaming Fuifui Moimoi.
Parramatta hit back with a perfectly weighted kick from Hayne, landing in the hands of Ken Sio.
Once more though it was another length of the field try from the Tigers, this time Pat Richards intercepting a Chris Sandow pass. Richards converted his own try and the score was 18-14 to the Tigers.
The Eels were far from done though. A Jarryd Hayne pass put Sio into space down the right wing. He was taken by the cover but on the ensuing play the Eels spread it to the left with Semi Radradra touching down for his tenth try of the season. Sandow missed the conversion and it was 18-all.
The Eels were working it well up the middle until on the fourth tackle when Tim Mannah knocked the ball on. The Tigers worked themselves into field goal range and Brooks slotted the field goal.
To make matters worse the Eels conceded a penalty from the kickoff and Richards stepped up to kick the 50 metre goal.
The final score 21-18.
Asked in the press conference about the Hopoate No Try, Brad Arthur and Jarryd Hayne both stated they wanted consistency in the rulings, given a far worse obstruction occurred during the Manly-Cowboys match and the try was awarded.
Parramatta play the Cowboys next week and Arthur has challenged his men to be more ruthless when closing out a match.
Replies
drop Paulo
This was suggested 18 months ago....rerun Fongs assessment on this bloke...pretty close to the mark...
Not sure you can call it stealing a match, when it is gifted to you.
I love how the biggest issue people have with this blog is the title. The title for crying out loud.
plus the 8 -12 metres (take your pick it varied each tackle) for both teams
Inconsistent Marker penalties
Full time called despite scrums packed with 2 seconds to go
Anyway we are a lot better team than this and the boys will be seething at giving this away.
I think we will learn a lot more from a loss like this rather than if we had of pulled off a great escape and the big match experience will do wonders for these boys later on in the year
The Melbourne Cup isn't won in May and the GF isn't won in April
I'd rather have a loss like this now than when the whips are cracking later on in the year.
The game was ours to keep as soon as Semi planted the football so caringly in the opposition's terra firma with some 3 mins to go. It was actually, physically ours. NRL teams just win in those situations.
To tie from there, it would require at least 1 monumental untimely blunder, or "Parra-ism". Enter Sandow, missing the fairly easy conversion. He would slot that one 80 to 90% of the time.
To actually lose it would require another Parra-ism. Enter our co-captain.
I feel like I'm gonna cop a blasting for my stubborness on this topic, but I simply do not place Mannah's error in the same "that's footy" sense that you are speaking of.
You need to understand the concept of having the game on the line. With our other errors, the game wasn't on the line. In Mannah's case, it was, and in this situation, even a rookie knows he has to retain the ball like his life depends on it because if you don't, you've likely handed the game directly to the opposition.
It was a standard hitup. Mannah should have watched that ball carefully into his hands with a concentration level double that he would normally have. It's not a hard task compared to what led to our other mistakes, and the timing makes it harder to overlook than the other errors.
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