The Dragons went down to the Eels 20-12 at in their Knock-On Effect NSW Cup clash at North Sydney Oval on Sunday afternoon.
Willie Talau was forced to lean on some of his depth with 10 of the 17 Dragons on show Jersey Flegg eligible.
One of which was Ben Jackson – a Gerringong Lions junior and Dragons Academy product – who was called up for a Knock-On Effect NSW Cup debut having pieced together a strong, maiden Jersey Flegg campaign.
Match: Dragons v Eels
Round 11 -
home Team
Dragons
5th Position
away Team
Eels
10th Position
Venue: North Sydney Oval, Sydney
The Dragons lost Cyrus Stanley-Traill to a lower leg injury in the early goings seeing Daniel Meafou inserted into the action and skipper Jacob Halangahu pushed out into the second-row.
Jonah Pezet muscled his way over on an angled run down the right-hand corridor to draw first blood for the Eels and make it 4-0.
Tyler Peckham-Harris showcased his penchant for dirty work dragging down a threatening Isaiah Iongi before sprinting back to defuse a Pezet grubber in-goal and bring it back into the field of play.
Halangahu and Jacob Webster were held up over the line for the Red V in the space of several tackles soon after as they remained in search of their first points.
Halangahu was placed on report and binned for a dangerous throw moments later, but their defence stepped up to hold Parramatta at bay through the 10-minute period.
Iongi and Apa Twidle combined to craft a try for the Eels moments out from the half-time siren with the former diving over in the right-hand corner to push their edge out to 8-0.
The Dragons needed to find the second half’s first points and they did with Isaiah Fagalilo jumping out of dummy-half and finding Hame Sele who powered his way to the stripe.
Tom Kirk stepped up to knock over the extras from a little to the left of the sticks to cut the deficit back to just two.
The Eels manufactured a needed hit-back with Pezet sending Twidle into space with an inside ball before Kitione Kautoga finished things off to push the scoreline back out to 14-6.
They extended their lead the following set with Lorenzo Talataina zipping into space and handing the ball off to Araz Nanva to dive over.
Nick Quinn nabbed a late try for the Red V darting over out of dummy-half off the back of a quick Dylan Coutts play-the-ball, but it proved in vain with Parramatta holding on for an eight-point victory.
