Round 15, 2017: Parramatta 24 St George Illawarra 10

NRL.com

Schick Hydro Preview: Parramatta Eels v St George Illawarra Dragons
ANZ Stadium
Sunday, 4pm

The final match of a bye-reduced Round 15 sees a desperate Eels side hoping to prove last week's collapse against the Cowboys was a one-off when they host a Dragons team sitting in the top four but missing two Origin stars.

The Eels' visit to the top end came completely unstuck against a Johnathan Thurston-inspired North Queensland and they never looked like threatening the 2015 premiers, who reversed their Round 9 home loss to the Eels.

It was their first time pairing senior half Corey Norman (who made his comeback from a knee strain) with new recruit Mitch Moses; the pair didn't get much of a platform to work off and neither produced their best games in their first chance to work together in match conditions.

Coach Brad Arthur has stuck with them though with fan favourite Clint Gutherson to continue to plug gaps in the backline. The team sheet sees Kirisome Auva'a return from a knee injury on the wing in place of last week's club debutant Nathan Davis in the only listed change. However the presence of star centre Michael Jennings in the reserves hints he may be close to overcoming a quad strain and could cause a further reshuffle in the backs.

The Dragons were disappointingly outmuscled by a determined Canterbury pack in a 16-2 Queen's Birthday loss on Monday and will be looking for a hit-back minus Blues pair Tyson Frizell and Josh Dugan. Jason Nightingale replaces Dugan at fullback with Kalifa Faifai Loa called up on the wing while Tariq Sims starts in Frizell's spot with Jacob Host joining the bench.

‌Why Eels can win: The Eels will be looking to channel what they did last time they played the Dragons: a fast start, furious forward speed building momentum through offloads and quick play-the-balls creating space for dangerous backs such as Semi Radradra (four tries against the Dragons in Round 2), Bevan French and Clint Gutherson (one try each in Round 2). Clearly the Dragons will be ready for them this time but if Moses and Norman can step up their combination after some early clunkiness last week the Eels should be able to offer more in attack than they did last week.

Why Dragons can win: The Dragons can take some confidence from the fact the Eels haven't actually beaten a team in the top eight since the last time these teams met in Round 2 (discounting one win over a Cowboys side missing three of its four playmakers including Thurston in Round 9). While Dugan and Frizell are big losses, the Dragons aren't currently fourth on the ladder (with the third-best defence) for no reason. The Dragons' middle defenders such as Cam McInnes (46.3 tackles per game, 98.3 per cent efficient), Jack De Belin (35.9 per game, 96.2 per cent) and Paul Vaughan (30.8 per game at 97.3 per cent) will be out to shut down Parramatta's attempts to play through the middle.

The history: Played 32; Eels 16; Dragons 14; Drawn 2. The Eels are currently enjoying a five-game winning run over the Red V. The Dragons have won just two of their past eight games at ANZ Stadium.

What are the odds: Two and a half times the money has been placed on Parramatta in Sportsbet's head-to-head market. Eels 1-12 is the most popular margin and Clint Gutherson is proving slightly more popular than Semi Radradra and Bevan French to be first try scorer. Latest odds at sportsbet.com.au.

Match officials: Referee: Grant Atkins; Assistant Referee: Chris Sutton; Touch judges: Michael Wise and Jarrod Cole; Review Official: Bryan Norrie; Senior RO: Ashley Klein.

Televised: Channel Nine – Live from 4pm. Fox Sports – Live from 3.30pm.

NRL.com predicts: The two big Origin outs for the Dragons levels the playing field a bit. Both teams should be better than they were last week but given the Dragons' more consistent form across 2017 to date we'll back the Red V by four.

NRL.com

An outstanding performance from Eels fullback Clint Gutherson – who has displaced incumbent Bevan French at the back – has sparked Parramatta to a dominant 24-10 win over St George Illawarra at ANZ Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Gutherson scored two tries – one a brilliant length-of-the-field effort – while five-eighth Corey Norman's pinpoint kicking game turned the Dragons backs around all afternoon and forced countless drop outs.

The bad news was a potentially serious knee injury to luckless hooker Kaysa Pritchard who was stretchered off in the first half with a suspected ruptured ACL.

After a horror loss to the Cowboys in Darwin last week, Eels coach Brad Arthur rung some changes with centre Michael Jennings' return from a quad strain causing a backline reshuffle with Gutherson taking over at the back and French shifting to the wing.

Jennings slotted back on the right edge, opposite to his usual left edge spot, with Brad Takairangi rejoining Semi Radradra on the right.

The changes brought immediate success and in particular the slightly-built French had no worries filling a spot generally now reserved for big, powerful tackle busters, scoring one try and more impressively, pulling off a number of huge defensive plays.

The Dragons have now scored just 12 points combined over the past two losses, coming off a narrow win against the last-placed Tigers the week before that and were out of sorts from the get-go.

For the second time against the Dragons this year the Eels started fast and their first try – via Gutherson – came in just the third minute off the back of a huge Nathan Brown charge.

The second came in the 25th minute against the run of play; with the Dragons on the attack Gutherson scooped up a Kalifa Faifai Loa grubber and exploded off the mark to streak 80 and score.

In between the Eels lost hooker Kaysa Pritchard to a possibly serious knee injury with the hooker stretchered off in the 24th minute.

The Eels dominated much of the opening 40 but were under the pump in the final 10 minutes with the Dragons finally cracking the Eels line four minutes before the break when a Jason Nightingale offload took advantage of Brad Takairangi's defensive misread to make it 12-4 at half-time.

Half-time appeared to come at a good time for the Eels, who rediscovered their energy and wrested back control after the break.

Their third try, much like their second, came from a poor Dragons touch. On this occasion centre Tim Lafai hoofed an offload backwards and Bevan French raced up and put a huge hit on Joel Thompson as he went back to clean up the scraps. The hit forced the ball free and Jennings streaked away to score.

With Norman's long kicking game pinning the Dragons inside their own territory and forcing drop out after drop out the pressure eventually told when Moses kicked early in the count and a wicked bounce proved too tricky for Nightingale to clean up with French pouncing to make it 24-6.

With time running out for the Dragons, a long-range movement got them in range and big man Paul Vaughan wound up close to the line and barrelled over to make it 24-10 with 15 minutes to play but, despite a few attacking chances for both teams, there was no further addition to the score.

Parramatta Eels 24 (Gutherson 2, Jennings, French tries; Gutherson 3, Moses 1 goals) defeated St George Illawarra Dragons 10 (Macdonald, Vaughan tries; Widdop goal) at ANZ Stadium. Half time: Eels 12-4. Crowd: 13,559.