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Parramatta capitalised on St George Illawarra's misfortune and mistakes to post a tough 19-18 NRL victory at ANZ Stadium today.

The Eels took full advantage of a dubious video referee decision against the Dragons and a poor option by Jamie Soward to score two pivotal tries in their three tries apiece win in front of 16,313 fans.

The matchwinning field goal came in the 74th minute.

A superb 40-20 kick by hooker Matthew Keating gifted Parramatta ideal field position and halfback Brett Finch calmly slotted a 15m shot to open up a 19-12 lead for the Eels.

Dragons centre Matt Cooper then added a try in the 79th minute from a Beau Scott charge down, setting up a frenetic final 30 seconds.

It is the first time the Eels have posted back-to-back victories in 2008 and lifts them to 10 competition points, while the Dragons remain near the foot of the table on just six points.

Parramatta held a 12-6 halftime lead, but it could have easily been the Dragons with the six-point buffer if not for a dubious decision by video official Steve Clark.

Clark denied a 32nd minute try to Jason Nightingale after ruling Cooper had stripped Eric Grothe in the tackle on his kick return.

It proved a 12-point turnaround as the Eels carried the ball from the ensuing penalty across halfway for Nathan Hindmarsh to break the line and pop an offload to Burt to score under the posts for a 12-0 lead.

Even referee Sean Hampstead understood the significance of the situation, remarking "that was a hard decision Clarky" as Burt lined up his conversion attempt.

Early in the second half the Dragons suffered another near-miss, but this time it was their own fault as Soward made a break down the right hand side but ignored inside support from unmarked Mark Gasnier to instead pass to lock Stuart Webb who was dragged into touch by Joel Reddy.

The Eels pounced immediately, scoring off their next set with Brett Finch drawing Gasnier out of the defensive line for Jarryd Hayne to score untouched for an 18-6 lead.

Hayne and Gasnier enjoyed a ding-dong battle all day in the centres, Gasnier using his fleet-of-foot to slide past Hayne in the 36th minute and then beat two defenders to flick a pass to Chase Stanley to score the Dragons' opening half try.

The Eels had opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a swift ball movement along the backline resulting in Grothe forcing his way across in the corner.

Comments

11/05/2008 7:46:20 AM Hi Guys, great call as always, just want to say something about the crowd at the stadium today for parra and dragons, i believe there was a poor crowd there, 16500, or so.
I noticed that this was a Eels home game that must off been one off those games that was changed to ANZ because they wanted a bigger crowd attendence, well i know that the dragons use it as there home ground but still had a poor showing off fans as well, i think if they had of stayed at parra stad they would off had 20000. Posted by: Mark Smith, cronulla, Australia Reply

12/05/2008 1:33:03 AM Once again the dragons lose because of bad decisions made by the "officials" who are supposed to know the game better than anyone else..Eric Grothe gets smashed, drops the ball Soward picks it up offloads to Nightingale he scores what was a fair try but no it was disallowed so Grothe is not punished for a loose ball carry, if you drop it bad luck! it may have happened in the first half but look at the end result, eels your luck will run out soon you were lucky against penrith and now the saints. Posted by: Todd B, Penrith, Australia Reply

12/05/2008 5:20:00 AM G'day, another solid effort by the call team well done.
Eels another unconvincing 2 points but 2 points in the bag. Todd B mate you need to stop blaiming referee mistakes for your losses, they can not be held accountable for the loss. The Dragons had another 78 mins and 42 sets of six to win that game, so please dont be so absent minded to blame an 80 minute loss on a 20 second moment of the first half. Oh and you comment about luck, aren't all sports a matter of 50% skill 50% luck. Posted by: Dean A, Erskine Park, Australia Reply

12/05/2008 6:16:32 AM i agree with u todd the refs performance was crap and again the rub of the green goes against the dragons wat can they do to get the rub of the green grothe clearly got smashed by renoldson and cooper and lost the ball it was a fair try. these refs will never get better theyll get worse im sick and tired of the rub of the green against the dragons. also how short was hampsteads ten metres and he never penalised anyone if hampstead and steve clark dont get the sack this week its a load of bull*** Posted by: andrew f, penrith, Australia Reply

13/05/2008 2:53:16 AM Todd B. If you are talking about luck against Penrith then Civenocevas double movement try is a bit of bad luck for Parra. If you are talking about luck how about Saints continued off side in the 1st half with Parras uptempo game. Mate, Ive got a few spare dummies for my 9 wk old bub. I could give you a couple but being a saints fan I know u will just spit them out again. Posted by: Richard Z, Sydney, Australia Reply

Eels slip past Dragons 19-18

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