From the Eels POV
**Sandow spark not enough as Eels go down to Tigers
Doug MacDougall - Eels Media
11/02/2012 8:53:58 PM**
The Pirtek Parramatta Eels showed glimpses of their 2012 potential tonight but it wasn’t enough, going down 20-12 in the inaugural Sean Burns Memorial Shield at Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford.
Coach Steve Kearney opted to rest skipper Nathan Hindmarsh and Jarryd Hayne from the match, with Taulima Tautai (second row) and Cheyse Blair (wing) coming into the starting lineup.
The Eels lost Mitch Allgood early when he was knocked out cold while attempting to tackle Aaron Woods. Allgood, heavily concussed, had to be assisted from the field.
Despite the loss the Eels looked dangerous early, with Chris Sandow attacking the right side of the Tigers defence and going close to scoring on a couple of occasions.
It was the Tigers that struck first however, a beautiful cut-out pass from Benji Marshall finding Matt Utai for a try in the corner.
The Eels repelled several Tigers attacks to hit back midway through the first half, with Chris Sandow the architect. Sandow’s cross-field bomb was pinpoint, finding Esi Tonga on the fly who touched down to score.
With the scores locked at 6-all, the Eels looked close to going ahead from another Sandow bomb only for Justin Horo to knock on in-goal. The Tigers made the Eels pay minutes later, with Gareth Ellis busting through a gap to send Blake Ayshford over to score.
The Tigers backed it up with another try minutes later after the Eels failed to recover a Benji Marshall high ball. Tigers halfback Tim Moltzen through a deft left-to-right ball to Ayshford, who set up Beau Ryan for the try.
A questionable offside penalty against the Eels two minutes from halftime put the Blue and Golds under pressure once again, and Marshall took full advantage, running a slick play down the left flank to send Utai over for his second. The NRL All Stars five-eighth didn’t have the best night with the boot though, hitting the uprights with two of his conversions, leaving the halftime score at 20-6.
After some to and fro’ing for the majority of the second half it was Sandow again who threatened to get the Eels back on the front foot, intercepting a Tigers pass to run 90 metres but getting pulled up metres short of the line. Sandow was assisted from the field following the try-saving tackle from Moltzen.
The Eels’ night didn’t really improve from there, with handling errors thwarting any attempt on the Tigers line. A consolation try on the full-time to NYC centre Vai Toutai gave the Eels faithful something to smile about, which was converted by Joseph Paulo from the sideline. Otherwise, the second half failed to live up to the exciting first stanza, with both coaches using the opportunity to test their positional depth.
Following the match, Eels CEO Bob Bentley and Tigers counterpart Stephen Humphries were on hand with relatives of the late Sean Burns – former Eels and Tigers strength and conditioning coach who died tragically earlier this month - present the Memorial Shield to the winning captain.