Round 3, 2013: Wests Tigers 31 Parramatta 18

Tigers beat Eels 31-18 in NRL
NRL.com

Wests Tigers turned on the style at Leichhardt Oval on Friday, beating Parramatta 31-18 to chalk up their second successive NRL victory.

Two first-half tries from Chris Lawrence and Blake Ayshford's four-pointer helped the hosts open up an 18-0 lead after they dominated the opening 40 minutes, claiming 69 per cent of possession.

The Eels struggled to get out of their own half for most of the opening stanza and were left to rue their discipline as the Tigers pinned them in their own territory.

Jacob Loko should have pulled four points back for the Eels on the stroke on halftime, but he dropped the ball close to the line having been put clear.

A Ryan Morgan try almost immediately after the restart finally put the Eels on the scoreboard but any hopes of victory were dashed in a crazy five-minute spell.

Having been penalised inside the Tigers half, a spray from Darcy Lussick towards referee Shayne Hayne resulted in the official marching the Eels back a further 10 metres.

However, Parramatta players continued to protest and turned their back to the play, allowing Benji Marshall to take a quick tap and race 60 metres unopposed for the line.

Minutes later, matters became worse for the Eels when winger Vai Toutai inexplicably batted a ball towards fullback Jarryd Hayne.

An awkward bounce deceived the NSW star and Tim Moltzen had the simple task of touching town.

The Eels, to their credit, did hit back with two late tries through Toutai and Loko.

But any hopes of a barnstorming finish were ended when Jacob Miller kicked a late field-goal to ice the victory.

Tigers coach Mick Potter was full of praise for his side's first-half performance, and revealed it was a tactic to target the diminutive Chris Sandow.

Lawrence scored twice in the first half when he ran over Sandow and Potter was pleased to see the plan come off.

"You can get that with smaller defenders and we recognise that," he said.

"Chris did very well to get over him."

Skipper Robbie Farah said the Tigers were improving slowly but still had a long way to go.

"We're getting better but we are not where we want to be," he said.

"But we are heading in the right direction."

Eels coach Ricky Stuart said his side would learn from the mistakes they made during the game and that the lack of possession in the first half really hurt them.

"When you start a game like that with the other team having 70 per cent possession to our 30 it is always going to be hard," he said.

"At one stage we had to defend 16 plays on our line but our defence held firm which was encouraging."

Eels winger Cheyse Blair is stopped in his tracks.

Jacob Loko scores a try for the Eels.

Eels forward Mitchell Allgood is tackled by Adam Blair.