Injury- hit Eels hold off Warriors for gutsy win

PARRAMATTA were left with just one man on the bench but produced their gutsiest NRL win in seasons to hold out a fast- finishing Warriors 32- 24 last night at ANZ Stadium.

The Eels lost hooker Kaysa Pritchard ( concussion) and winger Josh Hoffman ( knee) in the first half, before interchange forward David Gower suffered a broken hand in the second.

Centre Kirisome Auva’a was also forced to play on with a knee injury late as the Eels’ backline was stretched to its limits.

But despite the injury toll, the Eels still finished the fastest when Clinton Gutherson crossed from dummy- half with a minute to go to wrap up the win. The victory provisionally puts the Eels into the top eight, ahead of Canberra’s clash tomorrow with Manly.

It marks just the second time they have been there at the halfway mark of the season since 2010, but their performance had all the hallmarks of the Eels’ spirit from their 1980’ s glory days.

Parramatta looked shot when the Warriors crossed twice in the last 15 minutes to reduce the margin to two, but the visitors blew a chance with four minutes to go with a forward pass to unmarked winger Ken Maumalo.

Kieran Foran was the Warriors’ best against his former club. Booed every time he touched the ball early, he twice took it to the line to set up tries for Simon Mannering and Ryan Hoffman.

Hoffman’s try in the 66th minute was followed by a Roger Tuivasa- Sheck special six minutes later to put the Warriors back in the match.

The match had earlier swung on a length- of- the- field Semi Radradra try late in the first half. With scores locked at 12- all, Radradra capitalised on a poor kick from Shuan Johnson to run 80m and score, giving the Eels a six- point halftime lead.