Eels 22 Rabbitohs 16

Crowd: 21,533

Here’s a common perspective on this match – we didn’t play great but we got the win. The Eels once again played at a level just above their opponent – in this instance a severely depleted South Sydney outfit. Kudos to the Bunnies for giving us a tough game because a tough game was the tonic needed as we head into the finals.

Maybe this game will serve the Eels good as they needed to grind out the win against a Souths team with nothing to lose. Personally, I would rather a game like that than going into our next game with an easy win.

I prefer to see us being pushed and still winning especially at this time of season. That resolute mentality is essential when taking on the best teams in the comp. And ladies and gentlemen, we are now one of those upper echelon teams.

Score Flow

Parramatta Eels
H	Minute	Name	Event	Score
1	8	M.Jennings	TRY	4 – 0
1	10	M.Moses	CONVERSION	6 – 0
1	14	R.Jennings	TRY	6 – 4
1	15	B.Goodwin	CONVERSION MISS	6 – 4
1	26	K.Turner	TRY	6 – 8
1	27	B.Goodwin	CONVERSION	6 – 10
1	39	S.Radradra	TRY	10 – 10
1	40	M.Moses	CONVERSION	12 – 10
2	49	S.Radradra	TRY	16 – 10
2	51	M.Moses	CONVERSION	18 – 10
2	54	R.Jennings	TRY	18 – 14
2	55	B.Goodwin	CONVERSION	18 – 16
2	74	S.Radradra	TRY	22 – 16
2	75	M.Moses	CONVERSION MISS	22 – 16

Full Time Stats

	Team Stats
48	Possession (%)	52
25/34 (74)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	26/37 (70)
37:31	Time – Opposition Half	42:56
14:48	Time – Opposition 20	14:14
2007	Metres Gained	1932
10	Scrum Win	5
0	Goal Line Dropout	2
9	Penalty Conceded	5
0	Forty Twenty	0

Souths competed well in this game with the cattle they put on the park. Leading in most of the major stats, they really put a lot of questions to the Eels and nearly caused an upset. But the class of the Eels saw them come away with a hard fought victory.

1^st Half Stats

	Team Stats
50	Possession (%)	50
14/18 (78)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	15/19 (79)
13:52	Time – Opposition Half	26:33
7:36	Time – Opposition 20	6:15
1056	Metres Gained	951
5	Scrum Win	2
0	Goal Line Dropout	2
5	Penalty Conceded	4
0	Forty Twenty	0

The forty minutes was fairly even across the board. Souths had a lot of time in the Eels half but just couldn’t capitalise on that time. The Eels did well with utilising their time in the Souths half with more time in the Souths red zone.

2^nd Half Stats

	Team Stats
45	Possession (%)	55
11/16 (69)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	11/18 (61)
23:39	Time – Opposition Half	16:23
7:12	Time – Opposition 20	7:59
951	Metres Gained	981
5	Scrum Win	3
0	Goal Line Dropout	0
4	Penalty Conceded	1
0	Forty Twenty	0

Once again our opposition got a bit of a helping hand from the officials and this shows in the Rabbitohs having greater possession in the second half. Both teams completion was pretty poor. Just like the Brisbane game, the Rabbitohs completed sets look better due the penalty count in the second half.

The concerning aspect is the penalties that the Eels are not receiving. It’s become commonplace for Parra to receive as few as 1 or even no penalties in a half. This would indicate that almost every opposition team in such matches are highly disciplined – a fact belied by an Eels victory in each game.

Attack

Top 5 Runs
	Name	R
	M.Ma’u	19
	S.Radradra	16
	T.Burgess	15
	D.Alvaro	14
	T.Fuimaono	14
Top 5 Run Metres
	Name	RM
	M.Ma’u	186
	S.Radradra	154
	D.Cook	141
	D.Alvaro	139
	M.Jennings	133

Manu had an awesome game in attack, running hard all night and topping the run metres and runs. It was another sensational effort from the edge back rower.

Five Eels made the 100 metres plus mark. Even though it wasn’t a great performance, we still were more mobile and showed our attacking potential. On a day that everything sticks, look out.

Manu Ma’u	186m
Semi Radradra	154m
Daniel Alvaro	139m
Michael Jennings	133m
Tepai Moeroa	108m

• Will Smith 97m

Line Breaks

Eels – 3

Rabbitohs – 4

Run Metres

Eels – 145 runs for 1398m

Rabbitohs – 149 runs for 1374m

Set Starts

(Running left to right >>>)

Eels

Had some relatively good field position to start some sets but just couldn’t get over the stripe more often than we did. Good field kicking from the Souths kickers made life difficult at times and had the Eels coming deep out of their own end.

Souths

Looking at this map gives you a good indication of how much pressure we put ourselves under. Penalties and errors gave Souths some prime real estate to attack and that they did especially after the first two tries to the Rabbits came from poor Eels errors. Resilient defence from the Eels held the Rabbitohs out.

Hit Ups

Eels

Souths made us work from deep in our own half, as evidenced in this heat map. Our hit ups were mainly in our own half from kick returns. The Souths defence made it hard for our forwards to get any ascendancy, especially in their half. It was mainly the edges and our backs doing the work in Souths territory.

Souths

On the other hand, Souths used their big men up the middle and right into Eels territory. Again our goal line defence worked well to keep them out. Combine this heat map with the set starts map and that will give you a better understanding of Souths field position. A few restarts in the Eels 20 metre area kept the Bunnies on the front foot.

Tries

Eels

Jennings (8’)

Radradra (39’)

Radradra (49’)

Radradra (74’)

Kicks

The kicking game was pretty sound from both kickers who found their mark and had the Souths back 3 turning around. Unfortunately, some poor kick chase at times undid the well placed kicks. Souths first try resulted from a hooker playing fullback burning Semi and making quality metres for Souths to open their account.

Kicking Metres

Eels – 17 kicks for 610 metres

Rabbitohs – 15 kicks for 558 metres

Corey Norman

9 kicks for 343 meters

Mitchell Moses

8 kicks for 266 metres

Defence

Top 5 Tackles
	Name	TAK
	C.King	44
	C.Murray	40
	D.Alvaro	39
	N.Brown	38
	T.Moeroa	38
Top 5 Missed Tackles
	Name	MT
	C.King	5
	B.Goodwin	5
	T.Burgess	4
	M.Jennings	4
	M.Moses	4

Again we were made to defend more than our opposition. It was only an extra 5 sets but still that does chew up a lot of stamina. In saying that, the boys held well to complete the match and end 2017 home and away season on a winning note.

Cameron King just keeps on keeping on with another great effort in defence to ensure another Eels victory.

Eight Eels made 20 or more tackles in this game.

	Tackles	Missed Tackles	Ineffective Tackles
Eels	340	35	5
Rabbitohs	310	22	15

Discipline

(Penalties Conceded)

Eels – 9

Rabbitohs – 5

Errors

Eels – 10

Rabbitohs – 11

Even though it wasn’t a polished performance, the Eels still did enough for the win. The Rabbitohs made it tough work for the Eels, but, as emphasised earlier, a game like this is better preparation going into a big game than flogging an opponent.

I still thought Corey Norman’s game management was on track and Mitchell Moses’ wasn’t that bad either. A few errors really nullified both our attack and defence and no doubt the Eels coaching staff will be working hard on that this week before heading to Melbourne.

What a time for BA to start saying things in regard to our next opponent in a press conference. He has not said anything all year in a presser bar what happened in that game. It was calculated and I think said with respect. It certainly got to Bellamy who launched a broadside at BA about our ruck ‘infringements’. No doubt Brad would have been laughing after seeing Bellamy get fired up. Then if you saw Corey on Fox League last night, he was saying we need to take pillows with them as Bellamy says we lay in the ruck, even going to sleep there. Classic ‘Normy’.

It seemed to me that Bellamy’s feathers have been a bit ruffled already and the pressure is on the Storm more than the Eels.

All in all, I cannot wait for Saturday. It’s going to be a big assignment, a cracking game, but as we saw against the Broncos, the boys can fire up and go up a few notches, especially against quality sides like the Storm.

Stat Attack Player of the Week:

Manu Ma’u

Manu played a sensational game on Friday night.

His week off certainly refreshed his batteries and he was on song all night.

The Eels back rower has performed consistently this season, without picking up too many plaudits from the press. Nonetheless his workload would not go unnoticed by the coaching staff or the opposition, especially the brutality of his runs and his tackles.

Well done Manu. It’s been a greatt 2017 season for you after a superb 2016.

Possessions	22
Runs	19
Run Metres	186m
Offloads	2
Tackle Breaks	5
Tackles	20
Minutes Played	80

• Colmac

• Stats courtesy of Champion Data. All these stats and more can be viewed on our match centre at http://mc.championdata.com/nrl/ including live game stats.
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