What a bittersweet result. Just one week after they were thoroughly outclassed by the Sydney Roosters in Round 1, Dean Widders and his team clearly went to work at training to produce a gutsy and inspired performance against the St George Illawarra Dragons. They upped the aggression but balanced that against some silky attacking raids. They made significant strides forwards in defence even with plenty of new faces in their line-up. Just about the only thing to not be happy about is the final result of 16-10 as the Dragons narrowly escaped Round 2 with the win.
The absence of 2 competition points from this game might very well come back to haunt the Eels a month down the track. Still, it is hard not to be impressed by the magnitude of the improvement from Parramatta. So let’s get into who impressed in particular and what it all means for our ladies.
Props answer the call
Perhaps no one exemplified the impressive turnaround more than the starting bookends Filomina Hanisi and Ellie Johnston. Just a week after they were run off the park by the reigning premiers, Hanisi and Johnston were rugged, physical and highly competitive against the other grand finalists from last season. Both props ran for a tick under 90m – solid production in the NRLW – and even more impressively combined for just 1 missed tackle between the two of them. Johnston even freed her arms for an offload on 3 occasions.
They laid a platform and the team responded.
The challenge now for these two will be not only delivering a similar level of production but evelating their games a step beyond. To go from competitive to dominant.
Eels find their x-factor(s)
Tiana Penitani and Gayle Broughton put on a show down Parramatta’s left edge on Sunday. The scintillating connection between centre and fullback produced two cracking tries and some of the most fluent and stylish football you will see in the NRLW. The only problem I had with it was that they didn’t go back to that edge in the second half!
It was critical to see the Eels feature Broughton this week and she responded magnificently by terrorising the right edge of the Dragons. Her combination of speed, footwork and ball-playing were always going to make her a threat. What is really impressive is her understanding of how to tease a defensive line, how to create indecision with a feint off her left foot before exploding off her right. She is a special talent no doubt but equally important is her combination with Penitani.
We have seen Penitani shine at various points during last season but last week was the first time she has been consistently able to get downhill against an opponent and goodness did it make a difference. Tiana understood the timings on the incursions led by Broughton and reaped all the rewards as she flew onto the ball and thus into the backfield. She pinned her ears back for a try on the first such attempt but threw a truly magnificent pass back to Gayle on the second. Seriously, the degree of difficulty on that pass was as high as it gets and she nailed it.
Opposition teams will be keyed into the threat that these two present moving forwards but that doesn’t mean the Eels should waver. Each and every defensive wrinkle thrown in to spoil this play can be met by a variation from Parramatta. The priority should continue to be to feature the left edge attack.
Scrum suffering sinks Parra
Easily the most frustrating outcome from Round 2 was the struggles that the Eels had when it came to defending scrums on their own goal line. The Dragons scored two tries directly from scrums as Parramatta’s left edge was beaten short and its right edge beaten long. It marred a vastly improved defensive performance from the Blue & Gold and ended up the difference on the scoreboard.
I freely concede that sometimes the opposition are simply going to put on a move that is worthy of a try from a scrum. On Sunday though weak initial contact paved the way for the first scrum try while on the second the Eels were simply stripped for numbers. The girls have shown they can make significant adjustments from game to game so I expect them apply the polish and elbow grease here.
Rookies ready to rumble
With four new faces in the team, three of which were making their NRLW debuts, plenty could have gone astray for the Parramatta Eels. Instead, Zali Fay, Tayla Preston, Ashleigh Quinlan and Ruby-Jean Kennard knuckled down and delivered strong performances across the board. Outside of a late and unfortunate knock-on by Fay, all four proved to be in their element against a highly fancied opponent.
Preston in particular was impressive as she took control of the game in the absence of Losana Lutu. It now offers Widders an intriguing option moving forwards with a potential pairing of Preston and Lutu giving the Blue & Gold steady hands on either side of the ruck. I have already written about it but Kennard’s debut was a significant moment for the club and the fact that she wasn’t overawed by the moment makes it all the better.
The Last Word
Like I said, there is so much to be positive about coming out of this loss. However, the cold reality of the defeat means that the Eels now have to win strongly in two of their remaining three games at very minimum – if not win all three outright. They showed they have the talent and determination to do so on Sunday but the challenge will be to stoke the flames for nearly a full month. Can they do it? That remains to be seen but I am keen to see how this young team blossoms over that period!
It was a big turn around to achieve in one week.
The improvement was very noticeable.
I absolutely loved the set play tries; including the ad-lib change pass back inside.
I also think Kennedy Cherrington has edged ahead of Simaima as my favourite; she was on a mission.
It’s a pity that they couldn’t get any sort of roll on in the second half.