NRL Scores – Eels Win Eliminates Sea Eagles
The Parramatta Eels have kept their 2009 NRL finals campaign alive at the expense of the 2008 premiership winning team, Manly Sea Eagles. This comes following their impressive 25-12 win over the minor premiers, St George Illawarra.
I managed to pick four from four the the weekend although the margins of the win by Melbourne was a bit more than I tipped in my NRL finals week one preview.
The other NRL scores from the weekend resulted in Melbourne Storm and the Canterbury Bulldogs earning the week off for week two in the finals series. Next week on Friday night the Parramatta Eels take on the Gold Coast Titans at the Sydney Football Stadium and the Brisbane Broncos host the St Georg Illawarra Dragons in a Saturday night match.
In yesterday’s match between the Eels and Dragons it was solid defence in the opening 20 minutes that laid the platform for an Eels win. In front of a packed Jubilee Oval crowd the Dragons were fired up and looking for a repeat of the 37-0 win the week before. After the Eels repelled attack after attack all that the Dragons could get out of it was a penalty goal.
This period gave the Eels confidence and from that moment they stunned the Dragons by putting on two tries in five minutes. Luke Burt scored after 26 minutes and then Daniel Mortimer crossed after 30 minutes. Both tries were comverted to give the Eels a 12-2 lead. The Dragons hit back just before halftime as Dan Hunt scored in the 36th minute.
With the Dragons getting desperate to cut the lead they were pushing passes close to the Eels’ line. Eric Grothe took advantage of this and grabbed a key intercept which he ran in for a try after 61 minutes of play. “I didn’t think about it – it was there and I grabbed it,” Grothe said after the match.
A Brett Morris try for the Dragons in the 70th minute gave the Dragons a slight chance of mounting a challenge but then that was snuffed out by the Dally M winner, Jarryd Hayne when he tip toed past seven defenders and the referee to put the game beyond reach.
The Eels would have to be favoured going into their match with the Titans as the team from the Gold Coast don’t seem to travel well however you never know in finals football.
The final NRL scores from week one of the 2009 finals series are:
Melbourne Storm 40-12 Manly Sea Eagles
Gold Coast Titans 32-40 Brisbane Broncos
Bulldogs 26-12 Newcastle Knights
St George Illawarra Dragons 12-25 Parramatta Eels
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