Parramatta burst the Bunnies' bubble with a gritty 14-8 NRL victory over South Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.

In a dour dogfight that featured some brilliant desperation defence, the Eels held on for a two tries to one victory in front of a crowd of 20,871.

South Sydney started ominously with a try to Chris Sandow after five minutes and began showing signs they'd simply kick on from last week's 52-12 shellacking of the Roosters.

But to Parramatta's credit they dug their heels in with a quick reply try to Feleti Mateo and then with halfback Brett Finch calling the shots and Jarryd Hayne producing three last-gasp tackles they set up a determined victory.

Finch threw a cut out pass for winger Joel Reddy to dive into the corner in the 61st minute and give Parramatta the lead after the sides had gone into the half-time break at 8-8.

South Sydney were lucky not to concede an eight-point try too with Nathan Merritt only cautioned and not penalised for sliding in with his feet in an attempt to stop the four-pointer.

It was a significant moment in the game after South Sydney had looked the better side, constantly attacking the line in the first 15 minutes after the interval.

But Hayne came up with two crucial tackles in that period, one on Colin Best and another on John Sutton, that forced the ball free to thwart try-scoring opportunities.

He also ankle-tapped a flying Merritt in the 72nd minute just as the winger was in open space with only fullback Luke Burt to beat.

Souths tried valiantly to fight back but couldn't create any genuine scoring opportunities.

In a worrying sign for Jason Taylor's side fullback Rhys Wesser left the field in the 60th minute with a left knee injury.

Eels coach Daniel Anderson was critical of the referees' decision not to award his side an eight-point try when Merritt lunged with his feet at Reddy, splitting the winger's lip with his knee.

"I thought it would have been an eight point try," said Anderson.

"They specifically spoke about that at the coaches' meeting earlier in the year." Merritt admitted afterwards that he acted out of "desperation" and thought the match review committee would "probably" take a close look at the incident.

"It was just a split second thing, I don't really know what happened," said Merritt.

"I just did not realise until after it and I knew it could have been a referees call (to award eight point try)."

Souths coach Jason Taylor conceded his side were "flat" and "lacked zip", but Merritt believes the players read too much into the glowing headlines from their standout performance last week.

"I think maybe we went out there thinking we had already won the game after last week's performance and hopefully this brings us back down to earth," he said.

Anderson meanwhile praised the defensive attitude of his players, with Nathan Hindmarsh crediting the new coach's tough fitness regime in the pre-season for getting them in shape to become defensively strong.

"It was a very honest performance across the board. I thought we defended stoutly for long periods and had to scramble," said Anderson.

"I'm sure the guys got a great deal of confidence in each other out of it as well."

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