Round 1 of the NRL kicjed off last night with the Parramatta Eels hosting the Canterbury Bulldogs at Bankwest Stadium. With all of the off field issues surrounding the Bulldogs this week, it was always going to be interesting to see how the rest of the team would aim up.
The defense from both teams was good with not many line breaks occurring and the scoring opportunities from both teams were limited. The Half time score resembled a tight contest with both teams only scoring from penalty kicks.
The Captains challenge was wasted by both teams from blatant knock on calls, where the Captain was pretty much blind sided to the event, but was told by the player (who Knocked on) to look at it as they believed they hadn’t done so. Unfortunately the video doesn’t lie and both challenges could have been used better throughout the game.
Parrmatta were under the pump early in the second half as the Bulldogs made some great yardage to press the Eels try line, but the Bulldogs choices in plays were not exactly damaging and easily picked off by the Eels defense.
Parramatta were pretty much let off and then turned the tables on the Bulldogs and gained easy yardage via silly penalties handed to them. The Eels capitalized and a luck spill of the ball by the Bulldogs Lewis while trying to pick up a kick in goal and Mahoney was Johnny on the spot to score the try.
Overall it was a frustrating game to watch and hats off to the Eels for winning the game, but if I was an Eels fan (yes you Radar LOL) I wouldn’t be running out just yet to buy your Grand Final tickets as there is a lot of rust left in that Valiant.
