Round 14, 2021: Parramatta 40 Wests Tigers 12

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Eels v Wests Tigers: Lussick the new rake; In-doubt Mbye named

Both western Sydney clubs head into round 14 coming off huge bye-round wins, with each significant in the terms of their respective seasons.

For the Eels, the 40-4 win over an admittedly under-strength Newcastle put their season back on track after two very disappointing losses and keeps them in third on the ladder, with the returning Dylan Brown making a huge impact.

For Wests Tigers, not only did they become the first team since last year's grand final to record a win over Penrith (albeit with eight of their best players absent), they also recorded back-to-back wins for the first time this year.

With four wins in their past six they are now remarkably just two points outside the top eight with the season finally moving in the right direction.

The rundown
Team news
Eels: Brad Arthur will wait and see how many minutes Junior Paulo racks up in Origin I before making a call on whether the prop takes the field.

Regardless, Arthur looks likely to make a late change and include Will Smith as a back-up for Joey Lussick, who has only played 22 minutes of first grade this year.

Lussick has been named to start at hooker after Reed Mahoney picked up a shoulder injury last week.

Haze Dunster has kept Blake Ferguson in reserve grade for at least another week.

The Eels have won their past six games against the Wests Tigers.

Wests Tigers: Moses Mbye is expected to play despite limping from the field last week with a knee injury.

Joe Ofahengaue's minutes in Origin will be monitored before the club makes a call on his availability.

Like the Eels, Michael Maguire has four big men on the bench. Thomas Mikaele (knee) is facing at least a couple of weeks on the sidelines with a medial injury.

Wests Tigers centre Tommy Talau has scored eight tries in eight games at Bankwest Stadium.

Key match-up
Mitch Moses v Luke Brooks: The two great mates, former halves partners and housemates when both were Tigers, will go a long way to deciding this one. Brooks wore more than his share of criticism in the club's sluggish start to the season but has been excellent in recent weeks.

Moses is almost the opposite; he produced one of the great wet-weather performances in upsetting the Storm back in round two as part of a red-hot start to the year, but was largely anonymous in the losses to Souths and Manly and earned an early shower to rest his calf as his teammates ran riot over the Knights last round.

Stat attack
The Wests Tigers have not won three straight since Rounds 4-6 back in 2018, when Ivan Cleary was in charge. So a win this week will be a first for Michael Maguire in his third year in the black, white and gold colours. He enjoyed 13 sets of three wins or more at South Sydney in his six years at Redfern (2012-17).

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Moses leads Eels to Wests Tigers mauling

One-time Wests Tigers favourite Mitchell Moses twisted the knife into his old side once more with two game-turning plays in as many minutes, though he was one of four Eels cited in a 40-12 Sunday afternoon thumping.

Moses inexplicably dropped a sitter in the first half when a Clint Gutherson grubber sat up in front of him, but he more than made up for it by torching his old teammates after the break.

At 14-6, a Moses bomb that cleared the Bankwest Stadium roof didn't bring rain but points all the same when Daine Laurie spilled it straight into the arms of Waqa Blake.

Once seen as the joint venture's future, Moses then buried the Tigers the very next set in a stunning 70-metre sprint where he dummied to his support, took Laurie on and left him for dead en route to the line.

By the time Moses was double-pumping again down the left and sending Maika Sivo on his way in the 49th minute, the Tigers were toast.

With the contest done and dusted – from which Moses would collect a 20-point personal haul – Parramatta still gave themselves plenty to worry about post-game though, with Isaiah Papali'i sin-binned late for a knee to the head of Luciano Leilua.

Sivo too was sent for 10 and placed on report for a high tackle that knocked Adam Doueihi out of the game and introduced 18th man Michael Chee Kam into it.

By full-time Moses and Nathan Brown were also on report for high contact, while Luke Brooks and Stefano Utoikamanu joined their opponents on a chock-full charge sheet with a dangerous lifting tackle on Reagan Campbell-Gillard in the last play of the game.

For Michael Maguire's side, staying in the contest for 40 minutes was hard going with only 30 per cent of possession.

First-half tries to Gutherson and Joey Lussick – playing just his fourth NRL game in four years as Reed Mahoney's deputy dummy-half – had the Eels on top, but by no means in charge as the Tigers refused to wilt.

Parramatta should have led by 20 at the break but for Moses' in-goal fumble of a grubber when he was under little pressure.

Instead, it was Jacob Liddle sliding under the posts at the other end for 14-6, after Luke Brooks slid past Ryan Matterson and offered up a no-look pop pass for Liddle to latch onto.

The Tigers resistance was eventually rolled shortly into the second half, with Shawn Blore's sin-binning for taking out Lussick in support proving too much to bear.

Blore's contact on Lussick was questionable, the fact it was entirely unnecessary, beyond doubt.

Against a 12-man Tigers defence Moses ran riot with a hand in three tries in five minutes before Sivo's sin-binning set up a similar scenario for the visitors.

James Roberts helped himself to a consolation try before Gutherson's second – charging through the middle of an exhausted Tigers defence – earned him an early breather in front of a 23,417-strong crowd.