Parramatta Eels NYC side

1. Anthony Layoun

2. John Fonua

3. Emosi Alamoti

4. Noel Aukafolau

5. Haze Dunster

6 Dean Matterson

7. Dylan Brown

8. Sean Keppie

9. Denzal Tonise

10. Oregon Kaufusi

11. Dylan Clifford

12. Salesi Faingaa

13. Mitch Butfield

Interchange

14. Reed Mahoney

15. Tangi Hokai

16. Frank Salu

17. Dom Murphy

18. Joseph Taipari

19. Nick Okladnikov

20. Austin Dias

21. Ray Stone

22. Kamren Cryer

23. Greg Leleisiuao

 

Late Mail

 

Greg Leleisiuao and Ray Stone have been called into the team as the Eels look to secure a place in the Top 4. Haze Dunster drops off the wing while I am yet to ascertain who has made way for Stone. I think Tangi Hokai might be the player who has dropped out for Stone.

 

First Half

 

The Eels will receive the ball to start the game. The Gold Coast find Anthony Layoun from the kickoff and the fullback turns to Sean Keppie for the first hit up. The Eels work left and then back to the ruck  and end up gaining a late penalty when Denzal Tonise catches the markers out of position very late in the tackle count.

Salesi Faingaa and Oregon Kaufusi gets us going in this set. Keppie takes the third carry. Right now to Dean Matterson who plays out the back to Layoun who quickly shifts the ball to Emosi Alamoti and the compact centre powers his was through his opposite and the Gold Coast winger to plant the ball down in the right corner. Great opening by the Eels.

 

Try scored by Emosi Alamoti. Conversion unsuccessful by Dylan Brown.

Eels lead 4-0

3min gone

 

Matterson finds Kayfusi from the kickoff and from there Greg Leleisiuaio blows the Titans open as he dances through their left edge defence. He slides back infield to beat the initial cover defence and is eventually pulled down 20m out. Huge run. Brown goes down the left to Layoun who then uses Noel Aukafolau on the crash line but the Titans hold firm. Two plays later and the Eels earn a repeat set when Matterson shows a deft touch off the boot to trap the visitors in goals.

Another fresh set follows for the Eels when a pass from Layoun catches the hand of a defenders early in the set. Scrum 35m off the Gold Coast line.

Brown farts darts (cheers Trouser!) down the left from the scrum win and offloads to John Fonua who makes a few more metres. Sean Keppie surges into the line and makes a good 15m before he is barely held up oer the line! Play comes back 10m for the PTB. One hit up back to the posts and then Denzal Tonise looks to scurry over from dummy half. He is half caught by the markers and looks to extend his arm out and plant the ball but he just bounces it. Ref gets the call right and the Titans finally get the ball.

Not much up for grabs for the Titans this set. They are pinned in their half and get away a shonky clearing kick. The Eels let it bounce before Fonua loses it backwards for Layoun to tidy it up. Leleisuiao has another great carry and offloads to support as the Eels then work from right to left to get Aukafolau on the front foot. Back to the right now and a lovely ball from Salesi Faingaa puts Alamoti into a big gap and the centre nabs an early double as he simply bulldozes the fullback to get over the line and then centre the ball a bit for Dylan Brown!

 

Try scored by Emosi Alamoti. Conversion successful by Dylan Brown.

Eels lead 10-0

11min gone

 

Matterson to Kaufusi from the kickoff. Faingaa steams onto the ball on the second for a good gain. Left now as Matterson goes to Brown who finds Dylan Clifferd. The Eels surge over halfway and Matterson heaves a bomb up. The Titans want nothing of it and let it bounce and it takes a turn for the in-goals. 3 Parra chasers fly after it but they can’t get there in time! 20m restart for the Titans.

The visitors take the tap quikcly and earn a penalty on the first tackle as the Eels are pinged for holding down. They go downfield with the touch finder and work from left to right where they find a bit of space down the sideline. The Eels scramble nicely from the inside though and force an error! A penalty quickly follows and that helps Parra get out of their red zone.

Oh dear, that is just dreadful defence. Faingaa gets some early ball down the right and flicks an offload to Alamoti off his right hip. The centre just slides through some paper thin defence, fends away the cover defender from behind and runs past the fullback that deadset trips himself over. That is a 15min hat trick!

 

Try scored by Emosi Alamoti. Conversion successful by Dylan Brown.

Eels lead 16-0

16min gone

 

The Matterson to Kaufusi connection is alive and well again for this kick off. Keppie and Leleisiuao take good runs before Kaufusi comes back for a late charge and barrells over defenders to bring up the last. Brown looks to roll a ball through the line but it pings up off a defender, not played at though, and he regathers and fires a pass to Layoun back to the middle. Another kick goes up, this one in the air and Alamoti leaps up the catch it but can’t link up with support as he comes down and loses the ball forcing an offload.

Half break for the Titans as they venture down our right edge but Fonua does enough to stop the break. Unfortunately the Eels concede a penalty when the Titans come back to the middle but they quickly cough the ball up in the following set and then make things worse for themselves by conceding a penalty in the ruck. A booming touch finder takes Parra a good 30m down field and they begin to work the ball over halfway.

Denzal Tonise has defenders turning and guessing as he jumps out of dummy half but he loses the ball just as he looks to be breaking through the line! He was 15m out when he dropped that and I reckon he probably scores otherwise.

The Eels follow that error up with a strong defensive set. Gold Coast elect to run the ball on the last and break through the front line but committed cover defence quickly forces a turnover. Reed Mahoney is now injected into the game.

A relatively quiet set follow for the Eels as they work their way into the Titans’ half and then put a chip bomb up for Alamoti. He loses the ball in the contest.

We enter a bit of a lull in the game as both teams get through their sets but as I type that the Eels score an opportunistic try. Shades of an earlier kick as the Titans make no effort to catch a Dean Matterson bomb and it kicks out to the left edge where Brown and Fonua both give hot pursuit. The Blue & Gold winger gets there first and dives on the bouncing ball to score as easy a try as you will see. Really poor stuff from the Gold Coast back three.

 

Try scored by John Fonua. Conversion unsuccessful by Dylan Brown.

Eels lead 20-0

25min gone

 

Keppie finally gets another charge from a kickoff. Cliffered and Tonise follow in his wake. Left now to Brown who cuts out to Aukafolau. The young centre is taken in a strong tackle. Brown then has a run himself but is wrapped up to bring up the last. Matterson unleashes a booming bomb and surprisingly the Titans catch it! They seem to have used up all their luck doing so as they proceed to drop a ball cold coming out of their half. Faingaa pounces on the loose ball for a 30m gain but he hasn’t got the legs to take it to the house! The Titans scramble to reset while the Eels fail to get the ball to the edges before Parramatta eventually cough the ball up. Reed Mahoney mirrors Tonsie from earlier as he tries to reach out and plant the ball from dummy half before losing control of the pill.

20m restart for the Titans and they pick up a penalty mid-count for what looks to be a high shot. Time is off for an injured player, likely the tacklee. Now I am telling you a fix it is a Parra player down. Maybe Salesi Faingaa. He looks to be in rough shape as he limps off heavily with the aid of two trainers. His left knee was heavily strapped coming into tonight and he seems to be favouring his right leg heavily. Hopefully it isn’t a serious injury as Faingaa has been in terrific touch.

Dom Murphy comes on to the right edge for Faignaa as the Titans go on the attack. This is the sharpest they have looked all night but the Eels make a nice stand on their goal line. The visitors pick up a 6-again call when their grubber from dummy half takes a deflection, probably the right call, and the extra set proves to be too much for the the Eels as Fonua is caught short down the left edge for a simple hands try.

 

Try scored by the Gold Coast Titans. Conversion unsuccessful.

Titans trail 4-20

31min gone

 

Nice work from Dom Murphy in the defensive kickoff set. He works hard down the right edge to pressure the Gold Coast play maker on that side. Layoun tidies up the clearing kick and the Eels start to punch the ball through the middle. Nice half break from Mahoney to bring up the last but Parra lose their way a bit as Matterson runs the ball and immediately offloads to Layoun who puts in a poor kick that Fonua drops. Poor end to a promising set.

The Gold Coast pick up a contentious penalty shortly after for something of a self flop form the runner. Dylan Brown makes a really nice one-on-one tackle with the backrower on his goal line and the Eels start another strong goal line stand but yet again there is a 6-again call. Plenty of lucky to this one though as a poor pass catches the hand of a defender. Parra lift their intensity to match the extra possession. Great line speed and jams shut the Titans out but a nifty kick from their hooker on the last forces a line drop out.

Faingaa makes his way back out to the bench, maybe he is a shot of playing tonight?

The Titans finally crack the Eels after a glut of possession on our goal line and it is their shifty little hooker that makes the opportunity. He darts out of dummy half before stepping off his right foot and flinging an offload away to a runner off his left hip. The try scorer does a pretty good job of reeling in the hard take before diving over. The Gold Coast have actually reeled in a fair chunk of the deficit now.

 

Try scored by the Gold Coast Titans. Conversion successful.

Titans trail 10-20

39min gone

 

The Titans get one more possession to try and erode at the 10-point difference but they play out a largely vanilla set that brings an end to the half.

 

Half Time

Parramatta Eels 20 lead Gold Coast Titans 10

 

Second Half

 

The Eels are kicking off in the second half. Plenty of intent from both teams in the opening set. The Titans end up driving the ball flat downfield and Layoun pushes up to take the ball. Parramatta reply with a simple set of their own as they drive the ball into the Gold Coast half before Brown finds touch 10m out with a neat kick.

The Titans work to their left from the scrum win and go that way once more before swinging back to the ruck. The ref makes a terrible 6-again call for a strip from Mahoney when the ball was clearly lost, and I mean clearly, so the Titans go on the attack instead of looking to clear the ball. Our right edge has nice nice shape in defence as they repel the Titans. Ray Stone makes a great shoot and tackle to bring up the last and Layoun cleans up the grubber and comically immediately falls to the ground to avoid getting knocked back in-goals.

Matterson heaves the ball up in his clearing attempt and the Titans let the ball bounce once more. Their fullback leaps up to take the bouncing ball and gets cleaned up in the air. I am pretty sure that is meant to be play on but the ref blows a penalty. As silly as the rule is, once the ball has bounced the defenders lose all protection in the air don’t they? It happened to Tom Trbojevic against the Broncos way back earlier in the season.

Regarless the Titans get the penalty and thus a boost to start their set. The Eels defend fairly well and Ray Stone traps the kick from the hooker on his boot and dives on the ball for the turnover! Great hustle. A penalty follows when the markers push Stone as he plays the ball.

Alamoti taps and passes to Tonise but the Eels make an error in the PTB. Really soft and could potentially be costly as the Titans pack in for a scrum 35m off our line.

Disciplined goal line defence drives the Titans back off our goal line but on the last Layoun spills the grubber kick from the visitors. It was a tough take to be fair but the Titans pick up yet another consecutive set as a result.

Stone concedes a penalty on the first tackle for slowing the ruck down but I reckon that was pretty harsh. Oh wowee! What a swing! The Titans play the ball sloppily and get away a slow and loopy pass as a result. Enter Dom Murphy as he races off his line and scoops up the bouncing pass before jetting 80m down field! He is eventually caught by a winger who rakes the ball out of his grip but Dylan Brown is right behind Murphy to show incredible agility and hand-eye coordination to pick up the ball off the ground and run the final 20m to score in the corner! Huge swing in the run of play there and great hustle from both Murphy and Brown.

 

Try scored by Dylan Brown. Conversion unsuccessful by Dylan Brown.

Eels lead 24-10

52min gone

 

Oh dear. John Fonua has gone and dropped the ball from the kickoff. Bizarrely he caught it and then just dropped it as he looked for his prop. You can’t afford those errors after points.

The Eels switch immediately back to a defensive mind set as the Titans attack Parra’s left edge. Gold Coast don’t throw anything really testing against our defence but a nice kick on the last forces a line drop out so the pressure builds once more.

Lots of offloads from the Titans this set but not many metres. They look to kick early in behind our right edge and Leleisiuao loses the ball backwards before getting possession for the Eels in the field of play.

Nothing fancy from the Eels now. Their outside backs hammer the ball up the middle and make really good ground considering they started the set on their goal line. Matterson drops the ball in over the defensive line on the last for a tidy conclusion to the set.

Leleisiuao roars his way back into the game! A huge kick return is his contribution as he busts the line and makes 70m before he is tackled! The Eels are on the goal line now and Brown nearly puts Frank Salu over before the defence converge on him. Looping cutout from Matterson to Leleisiuao now but the bullish winger is just stopped short of the line as he steps his way infield off his right foot.

Time off now for an injured player. It might be that man Leleisuiao as well but it is hard to tell from my vantage point as it is on the far side of the field.

After a lone break it seems we are ready to get back into the action. Leleisiuao has not come off and plays the ball. The Eels go to their left as Layoun injects himself down the left on a sweep play but a solid defensive line shuts him down. A great kick from Dylan Brown on the last earns a line drop out for the Eels. That was a sweet grubber kick under pressure!

And it is a key play too! From the resultant set the Eels extend their lead. Big Frank Salu shows some nice foot work on the goal line to step his way between defenders and get the ball down!

 

Try scored by Frank Salu. Conversion successful by Dylan Brown.

Eels lead 30-10

61min gone

 

Layoun takes the kickoff and runs himself after racing up to take the kick. Leleisiuao and Salu take the early runs but Salu comes up with an error in the PTB. Two kickoff sets in a row now that the Eels have failed to get to their kick.

The scrum is set 10m into Parra’s half and the Titans work to their right on the first tackle. A sloppy pass on the second tackle robs the Titans of some momentum but the ref has pinged the Eels for jumping offside. Tap and go for the visitors. The set up for a big right edge play but drop the ball cold. Somehow the referee has found a penalty there? I have no clue what that is for as the Parramatta bench erupts and vents its displeasure with the call.

The Titans have well and truly lost their way in this set though. Lazy passes and no forwards momentum mean they pose no threat to the Eels and our left edge has no troubles wrapping them up when they run the ball on the last.

Hahahaha! Bronx cheer from the crowd as the referee pings the Titans for infringing inside the 10m. Stone has the first run. Kaufusi in second. Right now to Brown who feeds Salu. Left to Tonise who dummies and runs himself and the Eels are no 10m out. Dylan Brown runs to the line and rolls the ball in to trap the Titans in-goals. Nice poise from the very young play maker.

Faingaa is back on and takes the first run from the line drop out. Mahoney runs and passes to Leleisiuao who is well tackled before Salu is turned back inside from dummy half. Left to Matterson who kicks early. The Eels get a couple of chasers blocked in the line so there is a question of a penalty but an absurdly friendly bounce breaks the ankles of the Gold Coast centre looking to clean the ball up and Dylan Brown strolls by to say thank you very much and secure his double for the night!

 

Try scored by Dylan Brown. Conversion unsuccessful by Dylan Brown.

Eels lead 34-10

69min gone

 

Dom Murphy fields a mid-range kickoff and takes the opening sortie. Salu picks up a penalty on the third tackle when the ball is reefed out. Tap and go for the Eels.

Sloppy start to the set with Salu picking up a loose pass but the Eels reset with a strong run to Kaufusi. Brown plays to Matterson and is hammered late while Murphy ends up running an unders line off Matterson. The Eels work the short side on the last and Matterson kicks on the ground, really well weighted, and I think it is Alamoti who races through for his fourth of the night! It is really hard to tell because it is the far corner though.

 

Try scored by (I think) Emosi Alamoti. Conversion unsuccessful by Dylan Brown.

Eels lead 38-10

73min gone

 

Uh, squib kick from the Titans now. They drive it long and along the ground to no avail. It looks like Leleisiuao has been iced for the night but I can’t tell who is on the right wing. Not much doing this set for the Eels until Brown decides to run it on the last. He bullets a double cut out pass to Fonua who drops the ball onto his toe. The fullback gets across to clean it up but a driven kick chase knocks him into touch! Scrum 20m off the Gold Coast goal line.

Burield nd Matterson take the first two runs. Te latter of which draws a 6-again call as Matterson catches the hand of a defender. The Eels are then guilty of getting too flashy looking to forge ahead n the scoreboard as a long cut out pass is plucked out of the air for a 90m intercept try. Emosi Alamoti and Dom Murphy show plenty of ticker to give chase from the other side of the field but it doesn’t impact the result.

I missed it prior to the intercept but Dylan Brown has also been pulled with the victory secured. Luke Burt taking no risks here.

 

Try scored by the Gold Coast Titans. Conversion successful.

Titans trail 16-38

78min gone

 

The Gold Coast are running strongly and throwing reckless offloads now as they make good metres. A soft penalty for a high shot gifts them a repeat set and a crack at our goal line. We then get penalised for our markers getting pushed out of the ruck. Odd.

The Eels have one last goal line stand to make and they do just that as the Titans put in an optimistic cross-field kick. Fonua only has to knock it dead but tries to catch it only to let it slip through the bread basket and bounce dead. Geez he can be heart attack material!

 

Full Time

Parramatta Eels 38 DEF Gold Coast Titans 16