Eels crush undermanned Tigers
Parramatta awoke from their 2008 slumber to thrash an undermanned Wests Tigers 44-6 in the NRL clash at ANZ Stadium.
Finally showing the skill and class that had them ranked as premiership contenders pre-season, the Eels ran in eight tries to one to blow away a Tigers side never in the contest.
At times it looked like boys against men with the Tigers, minus four first-choice props, struggled to physically contain the Parramatta juggernaut which sailed into the top eight for the first time since round one.
To compound their engine room injury woes, Wests Tigers lost makeshift prop Danny Galea to a snapped Achilles tendon after just five minutes to leave them down to 16 fit players and without a specialist prop.
Parramatta took little time to kick into gear with Luke Burt touching down off a Brett Finch kick to make it 6-0 after 11 minutes, Burt's try coming just minutes after the Eels fullback had saved a four-pointer down the other end with a tackle on Beau Ryan.
A dubious strip penalty in Taulima Tautai's favour handed the Eels more possession and Josh Cordoba pushed through some feeble defence to score, and already it was looking like a long afternoon for the home side.
Even when something went their way, like when Tautai knocked on in front of his own sticks, the Tigers found a way to stuff it up with Benji Marshall spilling the ball from the ensuing scrum.
Two more tries before the break and it was game over at 22-0 to the visitors, Chris Lawrence's try six minutes after the restart following a nice piece of Marshall deception merely acting as a break in the Eels avalanche.
Krisnan Inu stepped past Mathew Head six minutes later to extinguish any hope of a Tigers resurgence before Nathan Hindmarsh scored a double in the closing stages thanks to some beautiful ball-playing from halves Finch and Feleti Mateo.
Joel Reddy completed the rout with a try eight seconds from time, Burt sending the Eels fans home and smiling all the way to Parramatta with a sideline conversion to finish with 16 points for the game.
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