The Dyldam Parramatta Eels NYC side has been defeated by the Sydney Roosters 46-34 in their Round 6 clash at Pirtek Stadium on Saturday night.
While the Blue and Gold dominated the first half, the Roosters staged an impressive comeback after the break to claim an emphatic 12-point win.
Right from the kick off the young Eels powered through their first set to send winger Halauafu Lavaka over in the right hand corner in just the third minute. It was the first of two tries for the winger in the first half, proving too strong for the Roosters’ edge defence to contain on both occasions.
His opposite number Fabian Goodall didn’t stay quiet early either; the big winger made a line break in the first twenty minutes, and with the help of captain Ryan Matterson and two back-and-forward passes Goodall dived over for his own four-pointer.
The Eels’ young forwards were instrumental in the first forty minutes, and lock Josh Aloiai put in a barnstorming run to give the side the field position for Joey Lussick to score, before grounding the ball himself under the posts 20 minutes into the half.
Winger Jack Goodsell got the Roosters onto the scoreboard early in the first half from a centre offload, before adding a runaway 60m solo try, and another skilful put-down to make it a hat-trick in the first 40 minutes.
Along with a four-pointer to winger Arthur Currie, Goodsell’s brace of tries kept the Roosters in touch on the scoreboard, trailing 30-20 at halftime.
But the tricolours put the pedal down in the second half to narrow the gap early. Taane Milne powered over the line, and prop Alex Lyons found the line to add his own four-pointer. With Hastings’ boot adding 2 points out of a possible four, the two teams were locked up at 30-30.
And it was Taane Milne who again crossed the line to break the stalemate, and put the Roosters in front for the first time in the match. Arthur Currie also made it a double, putting the tricolours 10 points in front with less than 20 minutes to play.
Halfback Jackson Hastings pulled off a skilful grounding from a kick to extend the lead in the last 10 minutes, and added the extras to his own try.
As the clock wound down, Lavaka went alone down the right edge to score his third try of the night and narrow the Roosters’ lead to 12 points with 4 minutes on the clock.
But time ran out for the Eels NYC side and the Roosters claimed their second under 20s win over the Eels for 2014.
Sydney Roosters - 46 (Goodsell 3, Currie 2, Milne 2, Lyons, Hastings. Hastings: 5/9)
Dyldam Parramatta Eels - 34 (Lavaka 3, Aloiai, Lussick, Goodall, Dockar-Clay. Davis: 3/7)
