Hayne stars as Eels beat Raiders - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Hayne stars as Eels beat Raiders

By Todd Balym 28/03/2009 11:30:32 PM Comments (0)

Parramatta five-eighth Jarryd Hayne produced two pieces of match-winning football as the Eels snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in an 18-16 NRL triumph over Canberra on Saturday night.

Hayne scored a 90m intercept try in the 61st minute that sparked an avalanche of Parramatta points as the Eels turned a 16-4 deficit into a two point NRL victory at Parramatta Stadium.

Canberra five-eighth Terry Campese had stamped his authority on the game by leading the Raiders to an early advantage, but it was his pass that Hayne plucked from thin air that let the Eels back into the game.

Just seconds earlier winger Justin Carney was ruled short of the line by video referee Russell Smith in a decision which could have sealed a Canberra win.

Instead Hayne pulled off the play of the game by sprinting the length of the field to spark the Eels to three tries in 10 minutes.

Krisnan Inu scored off a Brett Finch grubber in the 68th minute then Hayne threw his finest pass since shifting to five-eighth in 2009 for Eric Grothe to score his second try of the game and give the Eels the lead for the first time in the 71st minute.

Campese gave Canberra a chance to steal victory back but centre Jarrod Croker dropped the ball over the line after picking up an awkward bounce from his grubber kick in the 75th minute.

It was a brilliant come-from-behind win by the Eels which leaves Canberra winless in 2009 under new coach David Furner.

The Eels looked anything but winners in the first half, Grothe scoring only when fullback David Milne was in the sin-bin for a professional foul on Luke Burt.

Canberra dominated possession with Campese kicking a 40-20 then passing for Joel Monaghan to score the first try of the game in the 12th minute.

Campese also threw the pass for Croker's try in the 50th minute and again for Joe Picker's try in the 56th minute as Parramatta's fragile goal-line defence reared its ugly head yet again.

"Sometimes you play well and lose a game. Sometimes you don't play well and jag a game and that's how it worked tonight," said Eels coach Daniel Anderson.

"I did not think we were showing anything that would get us back in the game.

"We were outplayed, out-enthused, we were disappointing but once again the game changes sometimes in dramatic circumstances and we got a sniff.

"We did not deserve it, but we won the game."

Anderson did not want to talk up Hayne's performance at five-eighth insisting the team's performance after his try had more to do with the result than individual brilliance.

"I'm tired of talking about Jarryd," said Anderson.

"He is defending stoutly in the line. He is making 10 times more tackles than he was last year.

"(His try) was obviously a change in momentum but it was probably the next plays that came after it (that won us the game)."

Canberra coach David Furner was furious at the referees' performances, especially three disallowed tries - two of them to Justin Carney.

Carney was adamant he scored in the 60th minute and had the referee awarded the try it would have secured the Raiders the win.

"I definitely scored. It was down all the time," said Carney.

"(The referee) was going to award it and said he was only looking at the obstruction.

"For some reason it came back to the grounding.

"That try that was not awarded it would have put the game out of range."

Furner said the referees had made mistakes at crucial times.

"I'm sure there were a couple of decisions that changed the momentum of the game," said Furner.

"There were mistakes in that game, not necessarily around the players."

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