Dyldam Parramatta Eels Head Coach Brad Arthur has praised the commitment from both sides in his team’s 22-20 loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Pirtek Stadium on Friday night.
Click through to see how the match unfolded
The visitors scored via winger Aaron Gray from a Greg Inglis pass in the dying minutes of the Round 10 clash, giving halfback Adam Reynolds the chance to slot a conversion and seal the win.
“I thought Souths were really good tonight,” Arthur said.
“They were really committed in their defence, and at the end of the game Greg Inglis came up with something special.”
In a fortnight that saw the Blue and Gold issued with a salary cap breach notice by the NRL, and later cleared to play for competition points, Arthur said the Eels’ effort didn’t disappoint.
“I thought the effort and the commitment was first class,” Arthur said.
“We need to execute a little better, attacking the tryline there, and land that killer punch. We kept fighting to the end, we won all the stats: our completion was good, possession, [and] we had a bit of ball attacking the try line there, and we were just a bit down on execution there in our plays.”
“[We’re] probably glad the week’s over, it’s finished. It’s been a tough week but we need to move on from it straight away.”
“At least now we’ve got a bit of clarity about what’s happening moving forward. It can’t be an excuse.”
“We’ve just got to get back into training on Monday and get ready for Melbourne. We can talk about the technical part of the game when we do our video next week.”
Following the 9th minute of play, the crowd at Pirtek Stadium stood to applaud departing hooker Nathan Peats, and Arthur said the gesture was a reflection of Peats’ contribution to Parramatta.
“It was nice from our fans, they obviously appreciate what Nathan has done for our club,” Arthur said.
