A phone call from his mum telling him he'd done the wrong thing has forced Parramatta star Nathan Hindmarsh to admit he let Bulldogs hooker Michael Ennis get under his skin.

In the match-turning moment, Hindmarsh reacted to a comment from the combative rake and threw several punches which led to the sin-binning of both players.

In the 10 minutes Hindmarsh was off the field, Ben Barba scored twice to turn the match in favour of the Bulldogs as Parramatta saw their 14-0 lead evaporate and eventually turn into a 34-14 defeat.

"I've had phone calls from my mum saying how disappointed she is and I had the kids asking me the this morning about what went on, so I've had to explain to them..." Hindmarsh told Triple M radio station's Dead Set Legends show.

"She's usually the benchmark. She'll be the one who tells me the truth if I played a good game, and if I play like a busted she'll tell me straight away.

"To get the phone call to say she was disappointed, it made me think about it a lot more than I'd already thought about it.

"... I let him get under my skin and I retaliated in the wrong way, instead of hitting him in a good, nice solid tackle I've gone out throwing punches."

Ennis explained Hindmarsh's uncharacteristic reaction was the result of years of niggle and said he was not bothered that the Eels backrower had labelled him a grub.

"Over the past few years every time we've come up against Hindy we've had a few little battles," he said.

"It was along the lines of `mate, we've had many a push and shove over the past few years, why don't you throw one?' and that was as simple as it was.

"It's certainly been blown out of the water as much of this stuff tends to, but there was not a lot in it. I was quite surprised that things boiled over the way they did, but they did.

"He's entitled to his opinion Nathan, he's a wonderful player and a big stature in our game and as I said he's entitled to his opinion.

"I'll move on and not let itworry me to be honest."

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