Parramatta take a step to avoiding wooden spoon with 14-8 win over Canterbury
THE wooden spoon race is well and truly alive after Parramatta earned their fourth win of the season in a 14-8 struggle against fellow battlers Canterbury.
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THE wooden spoon battle is officially a three-horse race after last-placed Parramatta scored a morale-boosting 14-8 win over CanterburY.
The Bulldogs were dubbed The Entertainers in the 1980s but this football was far from it.
A runaway second-half try to Mitchell Moses was all that separated the sides in the end.
The result leaves Parramatta, Canterbury and North Queensland — all locked equal last on 10 competition points, with only the Eels’ massively inferior for and against keeping them anchored to the bottom.
It was only the Eels’ second win from their past 10 games, after narrow losses to St George Illawarra and Newcastle in recent weeks.
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Canterbury are now facing the prospect of finishing last for the first time since 2008, the year Sonny Bill Williams walked out on the club.
“Let’s not avoid it, it is important. No-one wants to be given the wooden spoon. No-one wants to come last,” Eels coach Brad Arthur said.
“I don’t need to remind the players or talk to the players. I’m sure they’re aware. Both teams tonight were aware of it because they both brought their best game. It’s really important we finish with something.
“We’re over-the-moon for our players, our club, our supporters for the win. It is really important for us moving forward. We had to hang in there, a few things went against us.
“We toughed it out, didn’t lose composure and kept our patience. We wouldn’t accept it but it would easy at this time of the year for the boys to say: ‘We tried hard but it wasn’t good enough’.”
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Asked about the wooden spoon, Eels skipper Tim Mannah: “I guess everyone is aware of it but it’s definitely not our focus going into games.”
Canterbury started well last night, completing their sets early and putting Parramatta on the back foot.
It took just eight minutes to open the scoring when centre Kerrod Holland dived over after the Bulldogs ran, swivelled and backed-up on the sixth tackle.
Parramatta called for obstruction but it was overruled. Canterbury converted for a 6-0 lead.
It appeared the NRL’s penalty blitz has returned. There were nine penalties awarded after just 27 minutes.
Four minutes later Canterbury winger Brett Morris was sin-binned for holding back Eels opposite Bevan French when chasing a kick into the Bulldogs’ in-goal.
There were calls for a penalty try but Morris was marched instead.
Parramatta crossed against 12 men three minutes later through hooker Kaysa Pritchard, following a break from forward Tepai Moeroa, who enjoyed a super first half. Moses conversion levelled the scores at 6-all.
Morris appeared to be watching a mobile phone — which belonged to the club’s female nurse — while riding an exercise bike in the dressing room during his sin bin stint.
Phones are banned from dressing rooms due to integrity concerns around betting. Although there is absolutely no suggestion Morris was doing anything but watching the game, the NRL was last night attempting to clarify whether it was a phone or a GPS device.
Parramatta scored first in the second half when Moses ran 90 metres to score a decisive try after Bulldogs five-eighth Lachlan Lewis’s fell favourably to the Eels’ No. 7 after taking a deflection.
It was heartbreaking for the Bulldogs and put Parramatta ahead 12-6.
A penalty goal to Moses 11 minutes from full-time pushed Parramatta out to a 14-6 lead. That lead was cut back to six points with six minutes remaining through a Bulldogs penalty goal, but they couldn’t find a late try to level up scores and send the game into golden point.
“We had a fair bit more ball than them — we just didn’t do enough with it, ” Bulldogs coach Dean Pay said.
“We’ve got a couple of young blokes there playing in the halves (Lewis and Jeremy Marshall-King) who were probably going sideways.
“We’ve got to dig into the line and create some opportunities for ourselves. When we got up the other end we made mistakes. We lacked consistency in what we were doing with our execution and trusting what we’re doing.”
PARRAMATTA 14 (M Moses K Pritchard tries M Moses 2 C Gutherson goals) bt CANTERBURY 8 (K Holland try R Martin 2 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Henry Perenara, Phil Henderson. Crowd: 8,437