Hayne shines as Eels down Roosters
Parramatta's Jarrad Hayne won the battle of the converted five-eighths with a two-try display in the Eels 30-24 NRL trial victory against the Sydney Roosters at Campbelltown Sports Stadium on Saturday night.
Hayne put in his best display yet in the No.6 shirt , crossing the line twice and setting up another as the Eels outmuscled the Roosters to make it three wins from three this pre-season.
The Roosters had their own makeshift five-eighth with Setaimata Sa making his first trial appearance in the No.6 jersey in a largely ineffectual display.
Sa spent most of his time occupying a wide position on the Roosters' right-hand side as former five-eighth and now lock Braith Anasta did most of the second receiver's work in attack.
The Eels didn't look like winners when Roosters pair Sam Perrett and Mitch Aubusson both crossed the line in the opening ten minutes but from that point it was almost all Parramatta.
A try late in the half to Tim Mannah made the scores 10-6 at the break.
The second-half was the Hayne show, with the former NSW winger breaking clear and scoring under the posts two minutes into the second term to give the Eels the lead.
Fijian rising star Sisa Waqa gave the Roosters hope of a fightback when he broke clear to send Aubusson in for his second midway through the term.
But within minutes Hayne had capitalised on a Roosters handling error to double his tally and put the Eels back in front.
Krisnan Inu extended Parramatta's lead to ten shortly afterwards before Hayne sent Luke Burt into the clear to seal the points.
Orange product Ben Jones chimed in with a late intercept try but the Eels were never going to be headed despite Perrett adding his second with the last play of the match.
Eels coach Daniel Anderson said he had been impressed by Hayne's display.
"I thought he was very good tonight," Anderson said.
"I thought he defended very stoutly, he was opportunistic with his try, half-breaks and breaks.
"I thought he kicked okay, you know, there were a lot of positives about his game.
"He'll grow in confidence as he settles. He has got better each game.
"I think he's learning to talk, learning when to inject himself. It's a unique position, a stand-off like him.
"He's exciting and I enjoy watching him.
"There's going to be some errors around him and there's going to be some diamonds around him too, we need him to get the balance so it's steadily weighed in the diamonds."
Anderson added he was pleased to win all of his pre-season matches but urged fans to keep the results in perspective.
"It's solid. Nothing fantastic, but certainly nothing poor," he said.
"That's probably the best thing ... I really can't give you a list of negatives.
"All I've got is positives and actions and behaviours from players that are all positive."
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