Saturday, March 27, 2004
Parra wins thriller against Knights
Parramatta scored a dramatic last gasp win against the Newcastle Knights in a drama charged encounter at Parramatta Stadium tonight.
While the headlines are sure to focus on the potential season-ending injury of Andrew Johns, Parra fans can rest assured that the Eels are going to be premiership contenders this year as the team lifted substantially for their big first home game encounter.
Taking on a Knights outfit that has been touted as one of the hot early season teams, Parra were forced to make some late backline changes. Wise Kativerata and Matt Peterson both were missing from the starting line up with Ronald Prince taking Kativerata's place on the wing and big Junior Langi moving into the vacant centre position.
Parra started like a house on fire racing to an early 14 nil lead through a smart solo effort from John Morris before a sensational Nathan Cayless pass put Luke Burt away. Burt converted both tries and then kicked a penalty to set up Parramatta's early advantage.
Johns then twisted his knee and was taken from the field in the medicab but that only served to strengthen the Knights resolve and Danny Buderus exposed Parramatta's atrocious goal line defence, scoring from dummy half not once but twice.
Parra however managed two more tries before the break. John Morris sent Ronald Prince over in the corner and then David Vaeliki scored from an Adam Dykes bomb after the siren to send the blue and golds into halftime leading 22 to 16.
Dean Widders highlighted a good game with a try but Newcastle kept countering, first with a terrific try to David Seage from a smart short Newcastle pass before Adam Woolnough scored a determined, yet ultimately soft try crashing through at least five Parra players on his way to the line.
James Webster scored out wide to give Parra the lead, before Kurt Gidley scored a controversial try after the video referee ruled no double movement to give the Knights the lead with only eight minutes to go.
However, Adam Dykes showed once again he is the man the Eels go to when they need points. He chipped across and over the Newcastle backs to find Ronald Prince on the fly. Prince juggled the ball before sending Junior Langi away. Langi was pullled down inches before the line but momentum saw him touch the ball over the line. Parra fans faced some anxious moments as the video referree deliberated but following the previous Gidley judgement there was no way that Langi would be denied and the Eels took out the game 38 to 34.
That capped off a nightmarish Saturday for Newcastle who in addition to losing Johns, perhaps for the entire season, also had David Seage leave the field on the Medicab, while Timana Tahu was also forced from the field with 20 to go with a hamstring injury.
However, Parramatta were very good tonight and they deserved the win after controlling most of the game. Once again they were let down by their tendency to give penalties away in mid-field which meant they spent a lot of time defending in their own quarter. Their goal-line defence was again poor, leaking five relatively simple tries, but their handling was better (albeit it can still be improved) and they managed to complete 30 of their 41 sets. They're blessed with plenty of attacking power and with Dykes and Morris running the show they have the ability to score plenty of points as they did once again tonight.
Parra fans will be relieved that Michael Vella was in much better form tonight, getting heavily involved earlier in the game and setting up a good platform for the early Parramatta lead. James Webster was again very good from dummy half, Dean Widders gave spark from the bench and the replacements Junior Langi and Ronald Prince didn't let any one down and were indeed the toasts of Parramatta when they combined for their late match-winning try.
While the headlines are sure to focus on the potential season-ending injury of Andrew Johns, Parra fans can rest assured that the Eels are going to be premiership contenders this year as the team lifted substantially for their big first home game encounter.
Taking on a Knights outfit that has been touted as one of the hot early season teams, Parra were forced to make some late backline changes. Wise Kativerata and Matt Peterson both were missing from the starting line up with Ronald Prince taking Kativerata's place on the wing and big Junior Langi moving into the vacant centre position.
Parra started like a house on fire racing to an early 14 nil lead through a smart solo effort from John Morris before a sensational Nathan Cayless pass put Luke Burt away. Burt converted both tries and then kicked a penalty to set up Parramatta's early advantage.
Johns then twisted his knee and was taken from the field in the medicab but that only served to strengthen the Knights resolve and Danny Buderus exposed Parramatta's atrocious goal line defence, scoring from dummy half not once but twice.
Parra however managed two more tries before the break. John Morris sent Ronald Prince over in the corner and then David Vaeliki scored from an Adam Dykes bomb after the siren to send the blue and golds into halftime leading 22 to 16.
Dean Widders highlighted a good game with a try but Newcastle kept countering, first with a terrific try to David Seage from a smart short Newcastle pass before Adam Woolnough scored a determined, yet ultimately soft try crashing through at least five Parra players on his way to the line.
James Webster scored out wide to give Parra the lead, before Kurt Gidley scored a controversial try after the video referee ruled no double movement to give the Knights the lead with only eight minutes to go.
However, Adam Dykes showed once again he is the man the Eels go to when they need points. He chipped across and over the Newcastle backs to find Ronald Prince on the fly. Prince juggled the ball before sending Junior Langi away. Langi was pullled down inches before the line but momentum saw him touch the ball over the line. Parra fans faced some anxious moments as the video referree deliberated but following the previous Gidley judgement there was no way that Langi would be denied and the Eels took out the game 38 to 34.
That capped off a nightmarish Saturday for Newcastle who in addition to losing Johns, perhaps for the entire season, also had David Seage leave the field on the Medicab, while Timana Tahu was also forced from the field with 20 to go with a hamstring injury.
However, Parramatta were very good tonight and they deserved the win after controlling most of the game. Once again they were let down by their tendency to give penalties away in mid-field which meant they spent a lot of time defending in their own quarter. Their goal-line defence was again poor, leaking five relatively simple tries, but their handling was better (albeit it can still be improved) and they managed to complete 30 of their 41 sets. They're blessed with plenty of attacking power and with Dykes and Morris running the show they have the ability to score plenty of points as they did once again tonight.
Parra fans will be relieved that Michael Vella was in much better form tonight, getting heavily involved earlier in the game and setting up a good platform for the early Parramatta lead. James Webster was again very good from dummy half, Dean Widders gave spark from the bench and the replacements Junior Langi and Ronald Prince didn't let any one down and were indeed the toasts of Parramatta when they combined for their late match-winning try.
