Parramatta have farewelled their temporary home of ANZ Stadium in style with a 24-12 victory over an injury depleted Cronulla Sharks outfit.
The opening twenty minutes of the contest was all blue and gold as the Eels dominated field position and possession as the Cronulla Sharks struggled to keep up with the Parramatta Eels in the early stages. However, the Parramatta Eels could only crack the try line once when Marata Niukore was on the scene to pick up a loose ball after Sosaia Feki dropped a Mitch Moses bomb.
The Eels continued to put pressure on the Sharks although their only other chance to get over the line in the opening 20 was knocked back by the officials after Reed Mahoney knocked on short of the line. The Sharks were actually able to get onto the scoreboard next when Chad Townsend kicked in behind the Eels line and Blake Ferguson fumbled it three times before Feki got his hands to it to ground the ball.
The game went from end to end before the Eels took advantage of the mounting possession and field position when the Eels were able to get space on their right-side and they used a 2 on 0 overlap for Brad Takairangi to score off the back of some good hands from his Parramatta teammates.
The Sharks who didn't get a penalty at all in the opening 40 minutes, got two in the first 10 minutes and they took advantage when off the back of a controversial call Sosaia Feki was able to go down the narrow-side and score in the corner. Kyle Flanagan added his second conversion of the night from the sideline to level the scores up.
The poor handling off kicks reared its head once again as the Josh Dugan made a mistake on his own goal line when trying to clean up his low kick saw Michael Jennings just need to put his hand on a loose ball to score. Inside the final 10 minutes, Michael Jennings was able to add a second try to his tally when the Eels were able to use a quick play the ball when they ran down the short side through Blake Ferguson who found Jennings who scored.
Next weekend, the Eels head to the national capital to take on the Raiders at GIO Stadium on Sunday evening, meanwhile the Cronulla Sharks return to Shark Park but have a tough battle against the Sydney Roosters on Saturday night.