Parramatta are ready for a premiership acid test
Parramatta have warmed up for a test of their premiership credentials against Penrith by beating the Warriors.
Parramatta sneaked past the Warriors 24-18 on a balmy Sunday afternoon on the Central Coast but the real heat will be applied to their premiership hopes in a matter of days.
Only one side all year has been able to defeat the high-flying Penrith Panthers. That side was the Eels. It was in round five – nearly three months ago.
It may as well have been a lifetime ago. Since then, Penrith have accounted for each and every side they have come across. On most occasions, they have done it with relative ease.
On form, the road to premiership glory goes via Penrith. Parramatta have already beaten them once. Beat them again, and the Eels can rightly claim to be a genuine chance in October.
They will need to improve on what they produced against the plucky Warriors at Central Coast Stadium on Sunday afternoon after they made a red-hot start but found themselves in a white-knuckle scrap as the clock wound down.
Only some desperate defence at the end stopped Peta Hiku giving the Warriors a chance at taking the game into golden point. It was no less than they deserved after they fought back from oblivion to give Parramatta the fright of their life.
Asked whether he walked away confident on current form that his side was a premiership contender, Eels coach Brad Arthur conceded they would need to get better.
“We still have a couple of weeks to get it right,” Arthur said.
“You couldn’t say (that) on the back of that performance right now. But the good thing is we have a real tough opposition next week to challenge ourselves on and we are up for the challenge.
“They (the Warriors) have been playing some fair football and they are playing for each other. I was happy that we managed to get the two points. It is extremely important in the context of where we sit.
“There is some stuff there we need to tidy up.”
Parramatta’s win on Sunday all but locked up a place in the all-important top four. They are four points clear of fifth-placed Canberra with three rounds of the regular season remaining.
A double chance seems a formality. At the same time, the Warriors’ hopes of making a fairytale run at the top eight appears over. They could have moved within two points of Cronulla with a win on Sunday – the sides play each other this week.
Instead, the gap is four points and the Warriors need a miracle. Then again, miracles have become the Warriors’ specialty this season.
“I believe we are a finals team,” Warriors coach Todd Payten said.
“It is just whether we are good enough to get there. This week becomes a pretty big game if we are talking finals.”
They almost pulled one off on Sunday after falling behind 16-0 inside the opening half-hour. While lock Jazz Tevaga was in the sin bin for a clip on the chin of Nathan Brown, Parramatta scored twice – including a first try of the season for winger Blake Ferguson after he had earlier bombed a golden opportunity – and looked likely to run away with the game.
“I am happy for him, especially when he dropped one over the line,” Arthur said of Ferguson.
Cue the Warriors’ latest miracle – a remarkable effort scored by Chanel Harris-Tavita that will rank as one of the tries of the season. Suddenly, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was running amok – he finished the match having run for more than 275 metres – and the Warriors were back in the contest.
“Playing those top four teams you have to put the effort in exactly like we did but we cannot have any lapses in concentration – we had a couple of moments where individuals did that,” Payten said.
“I thought we fought back really well, scored a couple of terrific tries. We had to score all our tries against 13 men and when we were down to 12 we leaked two. That was pretty costly.”
Payten was disappointed with the decision to sin bin Tevaga.
“I thought it was the wrong call.,” Payten said.
“Jazz has his jersey and is trying to push him off. In the context of the game it was huge and it was the wrong call in my opinion.
“If anything, the way Nathan Brown reacted, they should have both been sent to the bin. Nathan has come back in – he didn’t punch but he had a questionable knee.
“We’re trying to stamp out retaliation. I am not sure why one goes and the other doesn’t. It was a push – an attempt to escape from the tackle.
“It had a big impact on the game.”
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