EELS 16 TIGERS 17
Lachlan Galvin, the Tigers’ teenage whiz kid who grew up idolising Parramatta, helped inspire an Easter miracle, but it had a bitter aftertaste as a heady start to his NRL career was rocked by the NRL’s match review committee.
The 19-year-old playmaker fresh out of high school overcame a sin-bin drama for an ugly hip-drop tackle to lead the Tigers to a breathless 17-16 win over the Eels at CommBank Stadium.
But little more than an hour after full-time, he was hit with a grade three dangerous contact charge for the incident involving Parramatta’s Kelma Tuilagi, which will result in a two match-suspension with an early guilty plea.
He will miss three games if he unsuccessfully fights it at the judiciary.
Having been a Parramatta junior who harboured dreams of wearing the blue and gold, Galvin set up a crucial second-half try in just his third NRL game before Eels co-captain and stand-in goalkicker Clint Gutherson missed a difficult after-the-siren penalty goal from 36 metres out and six metres in from touch which would have won the game.
Lachlan Galvin celebrates the Tigers’ win.Credit: Getty
Veteran half Aidan Sezer had booted the Tigers in front with a last-minute field goal before the visitors were pinged for an offside penalty from the kick-off.
But it was Galvin who announced his arrival on the big stage, setting up the first of Justin Olam’s two tries in the opening minutes before breezing past schoolmate Blaize Talagi to set up Jahream Bula’s try which put the Tigers in front.
“As Benji says, ‘do what you see’,” Galvin said. “I could see I could run and I was lucky I got through. I heard Bula back on the inside like he always is in games and at training. I thought, ‘throw it’. He’s always there.
“Five months ago I was at school every day and getting my lunch box in my bag. It’s pretty weird. It’s a dream come true and I’ll hopefully keep the good form up.”
But the former Westfields Sports High School student didn’t have to wait long to learn his judiciary fate before he’d even returned home after the game.
Gutherson’s penalty goal, taking over duties for the injured Mitchell Moses, put the Eels eight points ahead in the second half.
But having to absorb a mountain of pressure in the first half, the Tigers found a way back into the contest when Galvin returned with tries to Olam after a Sezer cutout pass and then Bula.
David Klemmer carts the ball into Parramatta’s defence.Credit: Getty
“I just had to think myself, ‘what’s next and what can I do to get the team home here?’ [Marshall’s] been so good for me,” Galvin said. “He shows full confidence in me and it makes me want to go out there and play for him.”
Said Marshall: “I’ve talked about him a lot, but we just love the way he plays, the way he is and to come back on after probably feeling a bit down about himself, and to produce what he did, just shows his character.”
The win takes the Tigers into a six-way battle at the top of the NRL ladder, joining the Dolphins, Panthers, Cowboys, Sharks and Storm on six competition points after four rounds.
It was the second time they’d beaten the Eels by a single point on Easter Monday in three years and came with Marshall using only 15 players with Jayden Sullivan and Asu Kepaoa staying on the bench for 80 minutes.
The Tigers dispensed with the sheets used for their new team song in last week’s thumping win over Cronulla, prompting Benji Marshall to start losing his voice in the press conference.
“[The song] went OK today, but still can be better,” he joked.
Eels coach Brad Arthur lamented his side’s attitude after their come-from-behind win against Manly last week and playing without Moses for the first time this year. He’s expected to miss a minimum of two months with a foot injury.
“I felt like we probably just chased a soft win,” he said. “The last couple of weeks we’ve just built our game about being tough and rolling the sleeves up. I don’t know if we wanted to do that as much as they did [on Monday].”
But they still could have snatched the match after the bell with Gutherson’s kick, which hooked badly to the left of the uprights.
“You’ve got to sit in the box with Robbie Farah and John Morris to understand,” Marshall said. “They’re both just like, ‘we can’t lose like this’. I said, ‘look, boys, what is meant to be will be and if we do, we’ll just be proud of the boys’.”
