Round in the Junior Representatives brought a little bit of everything for the Eels. The Lisa Fiola and Tarsha Gale flourished with hefty wins against the Bears. The Harold Matthews came unstuck by their mounting error toll against the Roosters. If that wasn’t enough, the SG Ball came away with a draw after a manic ending to their game that saw momentum swing wildly numerous times in the final minutes.
Things are set to ramp up for the Eels and this column this week with the trial against the Newcastle Knights on Friday but for now this remains a cozy little debrief of the junior competitions. So grab a cup of coffee – or your preferred beverage to start the work week – and settle down for The Weekend Wrap.
Lisa Fiola Cup
Parramatta Eels 48 defeat the North Sydney Bears 10
The Eels came in as strong favourites in this game and played up to that tag with a comprehensive dismantling of the Bears. Bailey Ma-Chong was lethal from close range as the dynamic dummy-half set the tempo early on with an early brace of tries. Parramatta rode that opening momentum and never let it slide as they crushed the Bears in all phases.
Sienna Bonello, Freedom Crichton Ropati and Kaizen Morgan-Pritchard backed up their Round 1 scoring efforts as all three bothered the scorer against North Sydney while centre Hine Rikiti joined Ma-Chong with a double of her own. The rampaging Leonia Vei was also rewarded for her bulldozing work through the middle with a try in the 45th minute.
Parramatta showed solid week-on-week progress and their balanced attack continues to impress but a 66% completion rate points to plenty of overhead to still improve. There is still plenty of time to fine tune their ability to close out sets because they will need to be on top of that aspect of their game when they meet the Bulldogs later this season.
Tarsha Gale Cup
Parramatta Eels 48 defeat the North Sydney Bears 8
It was a double-barreled kind of victory for the Blue & Gold in the Tarsha Gale with Alleya Scrivens, Kyliah Gray and Ryvvr-Lee Alo all claiming braces as the Eels piled on 9 tries against the Bears. Parramatta looked like a well-oiled machine in Round 1 against the Raiders and they emulated that performance against North Sydney on Saturday. Even a late change at halfback couldn’t slow down the Eels with Anahera Paekau doing an excellent job deputising for Aaliyah Soufan.
Parramatta’s dominance through the middle, by both backs and forwards, set the table for the big win. The willingness of both units to roll their sleeves up and set a strong platform for victory is a great sign and naturally facilitates opportunities for their strike players – of which there have been many.
While I am still very much tempering my optimism after two rounds, the Tarsha Gale are giving fans plenty of reasons to get excited. They are playing a holistic brand of football that is demanding their opponents to match their physicality for long periods of play. We will find out down the stretch how that stacks up against Canterbury but it is setting the table for a huge early season push currently.
Harold Matthews Cup
Sydney Roosters 30 defeat the Parramatta Eels 6
Errors. Errors. Errors. The Eels put together a clinic on what not to do out at Mascot against the Roosters as they gifted the home team premium field position and possession throughout the contest. Goodness did the Roosters oblige as their left edge feasted on the short field with winger Filipe Fakauho nabbing a hat-trick.
Cobi McCloskey claimed Parramatta’s lone try after a slick bit of work from Cyrus Bloomfield down the left but the Eels simply spent the vast majority of the game bogged down in their own half. A loss this early in the season isn’t ideal but there is plenty of time to right the ship. With that said, the Eels have a lot of work to do. Handling errors, sloppy kick returns and given the massive point of emphasis from the officials – incorrect play-the-balls have to be cleaned up in the space of this week.
SG Ball Cup
Parramatta Eels 22 draw with the Sydney Roosters 22
Where do we even begin with this one? I struggle to recall an early season Junior Representative game with as much drama after the Eels and Roosters played out a thrilling 22-all draw. Parramatta looked to have sealed a win in the 64th minute via a try to Christopher Petrus after the Roosters lost a player to the sin-bin for an off-the-ball hit. Somehow the Tri-Colours hit back shortly after with a try to their dummy half Jaxson Allen. Indeed, Allen proved to be a thorn in the side of the Eels all game scoring a double and claiming crucial short drop-out and short kickoff catches.
The Roosters were lucky to only be down to 12-men in the final exhanges given that Nathan Howlett was taken out in the air in a reckless, violent and completely unneccesary tackle earlier in the second half. I had the play pegged as an instant send-off and was left flabbergasted when the player was merely put on report.
Lorima Saukuru was in the wars throughout this contest after copping a number of late hits (including the one leading to a sin-bin) but to his credit he bounced back every time. He scored an opportunistic try to get the Eels on the board and showed plenty of grit thoughout. Lincoln Fletcher laid on a great kick for Dominic Farrugia to score and then bagged one for himself to round out the scoring for the Eels.
A number of late changes in the forward pack arguably disrupted their game plan to some degree but they still put themselves in a game-winning position with under 5-minutes to play. I think the Eels will look back on this match as a missed opportunity but the draw won’t hurt them in the long term as long they continue to take care of business down the road.
The Roosters definitely had a plan to put the Eels off their game with a very physical approach that walked a fine line. It worked.