NRL finals race blown open as Eels stun woeful Dragons

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NRL finals race blown open as Eels stun woeful Dragons

The race for the last remaining NRL finals spot has been blown wide open by Parramatta’s 44-40 upset defeat of St George Illawarra, whose top-eight hopes are in crisis despite a frenetic late comeback.

The Dragons came into CommBank Stadium two points clear of the chasing pack in eighth position and assured of a first finals appearance since 2018 with wins in their last two games – both against bottom-nine sides.

But with everything to play for, the Dragons endured a woeful first half, winger Mikaele Ravalawa dropping the ball after the first tackle in a sign of things to come.

The Dragons went on to ***** three tries as they fell 26-6 down in the first half then leaked two further tries in the first two sets of the second half amid a total of 13 errors.

Despite leading 44-12 in the 69th minute, the Eels did their best to lose the game late.

Fullback Tyrell Sloan starred late as the Dragons crossed for five tries in the final 10 minutes of the game once their long-range ******* clicked into gear.

With only seven seconds on the clock, Zac Lomax opted to forgo the final conversion after Mat Feagai’s try down the left side to give the Dragons one last chance with the ball.

But from the kick-off, Ben Hunt could not get boot to ball as he attempted to kick to his right edge as the Eels held on for the wildest of wins.

The loss is set to push the Dragons out of the top eight at the end of the penultimate round of the season.

And even if they beat Canberra at home next week, St George Illawarra will need other results to fall their way to climb back in.

Despite suffocating the Dragons early and eventual claiming an upset win, Parramatta remain in a battle to avoid the wooden spoon when they face Wests Tigers next week.

Inspirational captain Clint Gutherson may need to race the clock to line up after leaving in the final 10 minutes with a corked quad.

Dylan Brown replaced him at fullback, having earlier put Will Penisini into a ***** for the first try and looped a cut-out pass to Jake Tago as the Eels punished the leaky Dragons.

Veteran winger Maika Sivo had his best game in recent memory, recording his 100th career try with the first of his three four-pointers.

Sivo burst through Lomax and Jaydn Su’A to hit the milestone after Ravalawa, who endured a dreadful afternoon, hit Blaize Talagi high and marched the Eels into the red zone.

Sivo battered Toby Couchman away to confirm his hat-trick in the second half, having earlier burst clear of Ravalawa to put Gutherson in for a runaway try.

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