Round 7, 2023: Parramatta 30 Canterbury 4

Seven-minute blitz sets up comfortable Eels win over Bulldogs

Parramatta have fended off a brief second half surge from the Bulldogs to record a comfortable 30-4 victory at CommBank Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

A double to Maika Sivo and captain's knock from Clint Gutherson helped the Eels to their third win of the season against a Bulldogs outfit who are becoming more depleted by the week.

The Eels took advantage of some early injury carnage for the visitors to pile on three tries in seven minutes and set up a 16-0 lead in front of a near sell-out crowd in Parramatta.

Despite the Bulldogs enjoying possession rates in the second half, the Eels kept their lead for most of the contest before tries to Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Sivo blew the scoreboard out.

Knee injuries to Jacob Kiraz, who left the field in the 12th minute, and centre Jake Averillo, who managed to play through the pain, disrupted the right edge defence for Cameron Ciraldo in a concern ahead of next week's clash with Cronulla.

Will Penisini finished off a Ryan Matterson offload for the Parramatta's first of the afternoon before Sivo got in on the action on the left edge via a Clint Gutherson cut-out pass.

Mitchell Moses then delivered another blow by collecting a Penisini pass after the kick restart for the Eels to go 100-metres to the try-line.

Canterbury needed to be first to strike in the second half and started to build some momentum through the middle with both sides trading some big shots throughout the contest.

Matt Burton's spiralling bomb kicks were on show throughout but it was his deft kicking game that enabled Paul Alamoti to go over on the left edge in the 49th minute.

Just as the Bulldogs looked to be surging home, an error from Tevita Pangai jnr, who was otherwise strong in his return, enabled the Eels some rare field position in the second half.

A charging Campbell-Gillard, who was among his side's best of the afternoon, proved too strong for the Bulldogs defence in the 62nd minute to help seal the win.

Match snapshot
The Bulldogs were hit with more injuries pre-game with Viliame Kikau (pectoral) and Braidon Burns (ankle) unavailable, forcing multiple changes before kick-off.

Parramatta had a concern of their own with Josh Hodgson withdrawing from the clash late due to illness with Brendan Hands starting at hooker.

Canterbury winger Jacob Kiraz and centre Jake Averillo injured their knees in the loss with Kiraz failing to finish the game.

Parramatta led 16-0 at half-time with three tries in seven minutes setting up victory.

Tevita Pangai jnr looked strong in his first game of the year for the club with a caf injury.

Reed Mahoney had a tough day out in his return to CommBank Stadium against his former club, coming up with two crucial errors in the loss.

The Eels have now won six of their past seven games against the Bulldogs.

Eels winger Maika Sivo has now scored 40 tries from 41 games at CommBank Stadium.

Play of the game
If he's not setting tries up, he's defending them. Not many outside backs can handle the force of Matt Burton's spiralling bombs but Gutherson was safe as houses with the Eels fullback defusing all that came at home throughout the afternoon. His defensive work shut the Bulldogs' best opportunities at repeat sets, particularly in the second half.

What they said
"I was really proud of their effort throughout the day, there were periods I was happy with and we improved on from last week but then there were periods where we lost control a little bit and things went against us. We're not getting much luck at the moment [with injuries] in any area... it definitely affects your whole cohesion as a team but that's footy and I know we're going to be better for going through this period." - Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo.

"We've got high expectations and standards, we won last week and this week and they're flat in the sheds and that's a good thing. We felt like we should've gone on with it in the second half but we know we're not at our best. [We're a bit far off our best], I reckon we just dipped our toe in. I think an individual knocks off for five seconds and it costs us. There's blokes who have less than 50 games in our side and we've got to be patient with them. It's part of their development to be an NRL player." - Eels coach Brad Arthur.

What's next
Parramatta are back in action in five days with a Friday night clash scheduled against the Broncos at TIO Stadium in Darwin. The Eels will hope Josh Hodgson is back on deck after missing Round 7 due to illness while Bailey Simonsson is also due to return from suspension. Canterbury will take on the Sharks at Accor Stadium with Jacob Kiraz unlikely to be available.

NRL.com