[ad_1]
Canberra and Wests Tigers meet in the national capital, while Parramatta celebrates a gritty 26-20 victory over St George Illawarra.
Check out all the live scores and stats below.
Raiders vs Tigers
Team stats
Play-by-play
Eels get home against Dragons
Parramatta’s Dylan Brown produced a match-winning play on his return from suspension to seal a come-from-behind win that keeps the Eels’ finals hopes alive.
The Eels had been expected to breeze past the 16th-placed Dragons and back into the top eight at Western Sydney Stadium.
Dragons winger Mikaele Ravalawa had other ideas, running in a career-high four tries that helped the visitors put on 20 unanswered points and lead by 10 early in the second half.
But in his first on-field appearance since June after being stood down for sexual touching without consent, Brown put up a cross-field kick that led to Bryce Cartwright’s second try and a match-winning lead with 10 minutes to play.
The Eels must still win two of their remaining three matches to finish the season with a winning record, which is no mean feat given ladder leaders Penrith and Brisbane await.
But they nevertheless finish round 23 in hot pursuit of a finals spot, sitting behind eighth-placed South Sydney on points differential only.
Brown was important for the Eels early.
His line-break down the left had the Eels on the way to their second try in the set after their first, and he twice produced try-saving defensive plays in the opening half.
But the Eels’ defensive steel could not hold, and on three occasions, Ravalawa had the better of his opposite man — debutant Arthur Miller-Stephen — on the right wing.
Parramatta coach Brad Arthur switched Sean Russell onto that edge to help stem the bleeding in the second half but Ravalawa would not be discouraged.
Ten minutes into the second half, he flirted with the touchline as he beat Eels captain Clint Gutherson and became the first Dragon since 2009 to score four tries in a match.
With field position came points for the Eels, who drew level thanks to a beautiful flat ball from Ryan Matterson to an unlikely try scorer in prop Junior Paulo.
Brown’s kick had Parramatta in the lead for the first time since midway through the first half.
On a weekend punctuated by two send-offs, Ravalawa and Zac Lomax could both consider themselves lucky to have remained afield after being placed on report.
Ravalawa hit Brown high in the first half but Lomax’s head-slam on Andrew Davey appeared more dangerous.
Ryan Couchman also went on report for a high shot on Parramatta halfback Mitch Moses.
Fixtures
Ladder
AAP/ABC
Loading
[ad_2]
Source link
