South Sydney’s NRL finals hopes remain alive after they registered a fifth-straight win to inflict more misery on a Parramatta side inching closer to the prospect of finishing the season with the wooden spoon.
The Eels slumped to a fourth-straight defeat in Thursday’s 32-16 loss which was compounded by star prop Junior Paulo trudging off with a suspected footy injury.
Parramatta have won just one game since the club parted ways with Brad Arthur and on a wet and miserable night at CommBank Stadium, the 13,941 fans who bothered to show up had little to celebrate.
Mitchell Moses was also sin-binned for a professional foul late in the game as Parramatta’s frustration came to the fore.
The Eels are bottom of ladder, behind Wests Tigers on points differential, but the Rabbitohs are beginning to look up and dream of a late charge towards finals football.
Souths climbed to 13th with the victory to sit just one win outside of the NRL’s top eight with a favourable draw over the next month.
Their star trio of Latrell Mitchell, Jack Wighton and Cody Walker all fired, while NSW State of Origin forward Cameron Murray got through the game unscathed.
The Rabbitohs began like a team that has found a rich vein of form, bursting out the blocks when Walker sent Jacob Gagai in on the right flank after 10 minutes.
Walker went close to adding a second but a last-ditch tackle from Reagan Campbell-Gillard dislodged the ball and allowed the Eels a brief reprieve.
Wighton sliced through some meek defending to further bolster South Sydney’s advantage and while the Eels’ defence was out of sync, their issues with the ball were a whole lot worse.
Their attack was far too lateral and Souths’ scramble meant it took the Eels 36 minutes and 23 play-the-balls in the Bunnies’ 20m zone to finally cross when Blaize Talagi finally broke through.
The winger’s try briefly brought Parramatta back into the contest but on the stroke of halftime, Michael Chee Kam was allowed to offload in heavy traffic.
Walker popped up in support as Chee Kam picked his pass and the five-eighth crossed to put Souths out to a 16-4 lead.
The Eels needed a perfect start to the second half to give themselves a chance and they had a glimmer of hope when Campbell-Gillard – on to replace Paulo – busted his way over.
But Mitchell hit back for Souths, first sliding on a greasy deck and then sending Gagai in at the corner.
Bryce Cartwright pulled one back for the Eels but after Moses was binned, Wighton wrapped up a Souths win with his second try of the night.
https://thewest.com.au/sport/rugby-league/more-eels-misery-as-paulo-injury-compounds-souths-loss-c-15244639
