Lacklustre match sees Parra scrap to rare away win

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St George Illawarra Dragons v Parramatta Eels

Two sides with different fortunes came together at Jubilee Oval as the Parramatta Eels scrapped their way to a 12-4 victory over the St George Illawarra Dragons in front of a crowd of just 9,645.

The game struggled to reach any real high moments with both sides having moments on their opponents' line of dominance but neither side could really take advantage. The Eels looked like they were going to be in for a big first half as the Blue and Gold opened the scoring after just the 4th minute when some ad-lib last tackle play from the Eels resulted in a pinpoint kick from Mitch Moses which couldn't be handled by Jason Saab and Maika Sivo cleaned it up and scored in the corner.

The Eels continued to dominate field position but errors continued to stymie their dominance of the game and the Dragons had the door opened up to them but again they couldn't take advantage and gave the ball back. The Eels then added a second try in the 22nd minute when Dylan Brown put on the jets after a string of offloads from Nathan Brown, Junior Paulo and Shaun Lane put Dylan Brown into space and score. Mitch Moses missed the conversion from wide-out and the score was 10-0 which it was left at until half-time.

The second half wasn't much better in quality with just one try coming and it was to the Dragons who scored in the 46th minute when Mikaele Ravalawa took advantage of an error from Waqa Blake and was on the outside of his opposing winger and he scored the try in the corner

Neither coach will be happy with their sides efforts from that point with consistent errors and turnovers stopping any potential attacking raids and just shy of the 70th minute, Mitch Moses was gifted an opportunity to push the Eels lead out to 8 when the Dragons gave away a penalty on their own 30.

After the penalty goal, both sides had chances to score but couldn't take them. Both sides will have nervous waits with each having two players put on report by the officials.

Next weekend, the Dragons will play host to the bottom of the table Gold Coast Titans on Saturday afternoon at WIN Stadium, whilst the Parramatta Eels are back at Bankwest Stadium when they host Newcastle on Saturday in the 5:30 game.