Parramatta Eels won their fifth straight game in the NRL tonight, beating Brisbane Broncos 28-14 at ANZ Stadium to move level with the Broncos on 28 points.
Kirisome Auva’a start on the wing for Parramatta, replacing Josh Hoffman from the team that was announced on Tuesday, while Peni Terepo replaced Will Smith on the final interchange.
The Broncos ran with the same 1-17 that was announced earlier in the week.
The Broncos took an early lead when Matt Gillett touched down after a long-range movement started by James Roberts on five minutes, before Roberts scored himself just two minutes later from a Gillett offload to make it 0-12 after seven minutes, with Jordan Kahu’s two conversions.
The Eels eventually got back into the contest Tepai Moeroa touched down a Mitchell Moses grubber in the 14th minute.
Moses then gave a great pass for Auva’a to score and the game was balanced at 12-all after 17 minutes.
After a melee shortly before the break, with Nathan Brown placed on report for the Eels, Kahu was able to add a late first-half penalty to give the Broncos a two-point interval lead.
On 55 minutes Moses landed a penalty to level the scores and the Eels went ahead when he landed another on 69 minutes when Michael Jennings suffered a late tackle when grubbering through to the line. In the same incident Broncos hooker Andrew McCullough had to leave the field with a knee injury.
With five minutes remaining Auva’a scored his second, a brilliant try on the right wing after the Eels swept the ball wide, doing superbly not to put a foot in touch and Moses’ conversion gave teh Eels a 22-14 lead.
Bevan French then won the game for the Eels when he somehow wriggled over from dummy-half, with Moses adding his sixth goal for a decisive victory.
Eels: 1 Bevan French, 2 Semi Radradra, 3 Michael Jennings, 4 Brad Takairangi, 21 Kirisome Auva’a, 6 Corey Norman, 7 Mitchell Moses, 8 Siosaia Vave, 9 Cameron King, 10 Tim Mannah (c), 11 Manu Ma’u, 12 Tepai Moeroa, 13 Nathan Brown; Interchange: 14 Daniel Alvaro, 15 Kenny Edwards, 16 Suaia Matagi, 19 Peni Terepo
Tries: Moeroa, Auva’a 2, French; Goals: Moses 6
Broncos: 1 Darius Boyd (c), 2 Jonus Pearson, 3 James Roberts, 4 Tautau Moga, 5 Jordan Kahu, 6 Anthony Milford, 7 Ben Hunt, 8 Korbin Sims, 9 Andrew McCullough, 10 Adam Blair, 11 Alex Glenn, 12 Matt Gillett, 13 Josh McGuire; Interchange: 14 Sam Thaiday, 15 Tevita Pangai Junior, 16 Joe Ofahengaue, 17 Benji Marshall
Tries: Gillett, Roberts; Goals: Kahu 3
Monday’s edition of League Express, available in the shops or online, will feature full coverage of all the weekend’s NRL matches.
