Parramatta have survived a brutal contest against the Sydney Roosters to move two points clear of the Storm and Rabbitohs on the ladder.<\/p>\n
It was a crunch game for the Eels, who had a chip on their shoulder coming into a contest with one of the competition's other heavyweights – as they've often been criticised for underperforming in the big games.<\/p>\n
But a controlling performance resulted in a 31-18 win, which really could have been a lot more comfortable if not for some brave defence from the Roosters, and some missteps in attack from Parramatta.<\/p>\n
The first 20 minutes of the second half was played pretty much entirely in the Roosters' red zone, but Parramatta couldn't push their lead beyond 12 points. A magical cut-out pass from Sam Walker to Matt Ikuvalu made it an unlikely one-score game with 15 minutes left, before Moses calmly slotted a field goal and Dylan Brown ran through some tired legs in the final moments.<\/p>\n
"I'm really confident in the footy I'm playing at the moment. I'm just playing with a lot more patience," Moses said after the game.<\/p>\n
"We just held onto the ball early in that first half … with a team like that, when they lost Radley early and a couple of other players, we knew if we just held on to the ball tried to drain their forwards, they rely so much on their power game."<\/p>\n
Roosters playmaker Drew Hutchison was rushed to hospital<\/a>, while Victor Radley and Reed Mahoney failed HIAs for their respective teams, which left Bryce Cartwright playing hooker briefly.<\/p>\n "I was running around like a headless chook for a bit," Cartwright laughed.<\/p>\n "They've made me feel at home since the first day I got here," he said referring to his new club – he bagged two tries tonight in his more customary position in the backrow.<\/p>\n Moses said the situation was strange, but praised both Cartwright and Brown for stepping into the role.<\/p>\n "It was pretty tough – we haven't really trained like that, or had any scenarios like that our entire season … it would have been good to have Will Smith on the bench tonight," he said.<\/p>\n "I think we can get even better than the way we're playing at the moment."<\/p>\n The Eels move to second on the ladder, a win clear of Souths and Melbourne, and two of the Roosters – they'll play the Warriors at next week's Magic Round, while Trent Robinson's men square off with the Cowboys.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"