Parramatta have fended off a brief second half surge from the Bulldogs to record a comfortable 30-4 victory at CommBank Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
A double to Maika Sivo and captain’s knock from Clint Gutherson helped the Eels to their third win of the season against a Bulldogs outfit who are becoming more depleted by the week.
The Eels took advantage of some early injury carnage for the visitors to pile on three tries in seven minutes and set up a 16-0 lead in front of a near sell-out crowd in Parramatta.
Despite the Bulldogs enjoying possession rates in the second half, the Eels kept their lead for most of the contest before tries to Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Sivo blew the scoreboard out.
Knee injuries to Jacob Kiraz, who left the field in the 12th minute, and centre Jake Averillo, who managed to play through the pain, disrupted the right edge defence for Cameron Ciraldo in a concern ahead of next week’s clash with Cronulla.
Will Penisini finished off a Ryan Matterson offload for the Parramatta’s first of the afternoon before Sivo got in on the action on the left edge via a Clint Gutherson cut-out pass.
Mitchell Moses then delivered another blow by collecting a Penisini pass after the kick restart for the Eels to go 100-metres to the try-line.
Canterbury needed to be first to strike in the second half and started to build some momentum through the middle with both sides trading some big shots throughout the contest.
Matt Burton’s spiralling bomb kicks were on show throughout but it was his deft kicking game that enabled Paul Alamoti to go over on the left edge in the 49th minute.
Just as the Bulldogs looked to be surging home, an error from Tevita Pangai jnr, who was otherwise strong in his return, enabled the Eels some rare field position in the second half.
A charging Campbell-Gillard, who was among his side’s best of the afternoon, proved too strong for the Bulldogs defence in the 62nd minute to help seal the win.
Source: NRL.Com
