Storm's late effort not enough to eclipse Parramatta
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday July 21, 2009
Parramatta 18 Melbourne 16 THIS time Craig Bellamy must have wished the video referee had intervened as Jarryd Hayne skirted the touchline in spectacular fashion last night to kick-start an upset by Parramatta that has kept alive the possibility of Nathan Hindmarsh surpassing Ray Price's record as the second most capped Eel in the finals.Led by a rampant Hayne, who had a hand in all four Parramatta tries, the Eels ensured Hindmarsh could celebrate his 250th match for the club with an impressive 18-16 win that revives their unlikely play-off hopes after a horror start to new coach Daniel Anderson's first season at the club.With seven matches left before the finals, the Eels are five points outside the top eight and would have to win at least five of their remaining games to qualify. But if they do Hindmarsh would equal Price's record of 258 top grade appearances for Parramatta and be just seven behind Brett Kenny's record.Yet while it was Hindmarsh's night, Hayne was the man of the moment and his ability to somehow stay in the field of play as he danced with the touchline to lay on the Eels first try was almost identical to the one he had disallowed for Bellamy's NSW team in the opening minutes of Origin I.The Parramatta fullback was also involved in a running battle with his Storm opposite Billy Slater that exploded just before half-time, with the Melbourne custodian accusing him of a headbutt.With injured skipper Cameron Smith, five-eighth Brett Finch and winger Steve Turner all ruled out on the eve of the match and prop Brett White dropped to the interchange after his torrid Origin stoush with Steve Price last week the Storm appeared understandably disjointed in the opening exchanges.The late changes forced a reshuffle in which former Parramatta lower grader James Maloney replaced fellow ex-Eel Finch in the five-eight role, Ryan Hoffman took over the dummy half duties, Dane Nielsen was thrust onto the wing, Jeff Lima and Aiden Tolman promoted to the starting forward pack and Northern Territory junior Luke Kelly called up for his NRL debut on the bench.Aside from a disallowed try to winger Joseph Tomane in the 10th minute due to a forward pass from Greg Inglis, the visitors never really looked like scoring in the first half.Inglis was also denied what would have been a spectacular try just before half-time after a diving at 180 degrees to plant the ball just before the dead-ball line only for video referee Chris Ward to rule that Hoffman had a foot outside the field of play when he leapt off the ground to tap it back following an Eric Grothe fumble.Grothe had earlier showed safe hands when he fielded a Cooper Cronk kick 20 metres from the Parramatta line to send Hayne hurtling down the touchline and set up the opening try of the match for halfback Jeff Robson in the 12th minute.Treading dangerously close to the touchline as he fended off Maloney and then the attempted cover tackle of Cronk, Hayne managed to just stay in the field of play before throwing the ball inside for Robson to race away and score.Eels winger Luke Burt missed the conversion attempt from out wide but the home side went ahead 10-0 just eight minutes earlier when prop Fuifui Moimoi enhanced his reputation as a human wrecking ball by crashing over near the posts from close range after another Hayne break.Ben Smith conceded back-to-back penalties in successive tackles for tackling Tomane in the air and a high shot on Scott Anderson as tempers threatened to boil over in the dying stages of the first half but the Eels hung on.Referee Ashley Klein called out Hayne as the half-time siren sounded over his exchange with Slater but Hayne walked from the field with his teammates and the caution was never delivered.Despite losing Maroons lock Dallas Johnson with a shoulder injury in the 48th minute, the Storm got back in the match when his replacement Kelly put Hoffman over to score and Tomane converted.A Burt penalty goal extended Parramatta's lead to 12-6 in the 53rd minute and in the next set of tackles Todd Lowrie scored to put them even further ahead after Hayne ran the ball to the line and centre Krisnan Inu somehow managed to offload.PARRAMATTA 18 (T Lowrie F Moimoi JRobson tries L Burt 3 goals) bt MELBOURNE 16 (R Hoffman D Nielsen JTomane tries J Tomane 2 goals) at Parramatta Stadium. Referee: Ashley Klein, Bernard Sutton. Crowd: 10,804.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald