Eels take topsy turvy clash over the Tigers

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Parramatta Eels v Wests Tigers

The Parramatta Eels have taken their second victory of 2018 with a 24-22 victory over the Wests Tigers in front of 17,555 fans at ANZ Stadium.

Wests Tigers were looking to bounce back from their heartbreaking defeat in Tamworth whilst the Eels were looking to go back to back for the first time in 2018.

The first half began as an end to end affair with the Tigers slotting a penalty goal after just five minutes before the Eels leveled things up at 2 all just under 10 minutes later. The two sides were then going end to end with no real pressure on their opponents goalline until the  Tigers created something from nothing when Benji Marshall crabbed across field finding Esan Marsters who put on a step to beat the defensive line with Corey Thompson bursting through on the inside to score the opening try.

Again it was only a matter of minutes later that the Eels levelled things up when Bevan French sprinted onto a kick and took a beautiful leap to outgrab Corey Thompson at the back and get the ball to the ground all in one motion and after the Bunker upheld Matt Cecchin's call of TRY, the Eels had leveled things up.

Parramatta then took the lead for the first time when Mitch Moses poked through the line before getting a questionable offload away that looked to have traveled forward to Michael Jennings but was given the all clear by the officials and the try was given. 

The Wests Tigers added a penalty goal right on half time to close the gap to two points before they took the lead inside 5 minutes of the second half when Luke Brooks threw a beautiful no look ball to Matt Eisenhuth who ran through untouched to score.

A tit-for-tat battle kept going with the Eels going back into the lead when Brad Takairangi crossed in the corner and after a sweetly hit conversion from Mitch Moses the Tigers were back in the lead. The Tigers then hit back again when a last tackle running play saw Benji Marshall running onto an offload from Mahe Fonua and after Benji steamed through the line and scored after bunker approval.

The Eels then went back into the lead with eleven minutes to go when Manu Ma'u was too big for the Tigers outside defence and got the ball down to level the scores and Mitch Moses'  conversion put the Eels back into the lead and that was the decisive moment with the Tigers unable to bounce back to get the victory.

Next weekend, the Eels have a trip into the shire with a clash against the Sharks at Shark Park whilst the Tigers have a tough task with a second trip across the Tasman to take on the New Zealand Warriors.