Former Leeds Rhinos hooker James Segeyaro made his return to the NRL in the final 20 minutes of Cronulla’s 20-6 victory over Parrmatta at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.
But by the time he came onto the field the damage had all been done by the NRL Premiers.
It was the Eels second successive defeat and they never looked like winning, making far too many errors and conceding too many penalties.
The Sharks took a 12-6 interval lead with tries to Jayden Brailey and Sosaia Feki, but the Eels replied just before half-time when a Corey Norman grubber was touched down by David Gower, with the Eels fans anticipating better things ahead in the second half.
James Maloney added a further two points with a penalty in the 46th-minute before a Paul Gallen charge and offload to Maloney saw the stand-off score under the posts and convert to complete the night’s scoring.
Segeyaro looked a little rusty and conceded an early penalty, but he will be benefit from the outing.
Eels: 1 Bevan French; 2 Semi Radradra, 3 Michael Jennings, 4 Brad Takairangi, 5 Josh Hoffman; 6 Clint Gutherson, 7 Corey Norman; 8 Suaia Matagi, 9 Kaysa Pritchard, 10 Tim Mannah (c), 11 Manu Ma’u, 12 Frank Pritchard, 13 Beau Scott. Subs: 14 Nathan Brown, 15 Daniel Alvaro, 16 David Gower, 17 Siosaia Vave.
Sharks: 1 Jack Bird; 2 Sosaia Feki, 19, 19 Gerard Beale, 4 Ricky Leutele, 5 Valentine Holmes; 6 James Maloney, 7 Chad Townsend; 8 Andrew Fifita, 9 Jayden Brailey, 10 Matt Prior, 11 Luke Lewis, 12 Wade Graham, 13 Paul Gallen (c). Subs: 14 Jayson Bukuya, 15 Chris Heighington, 16 Jeremy Latimore, 20 James Segeyaro.
Full coverage of all the weekend’s NRL matches will feature in Monday’s League Express.