Parramatta survive late scare to secure crucial win over Cronulla

The Parramatta Eels have welcomed back its two stars with a tantalising 34-22 win over the league-leading Cronulla Sharks on Thursday night at CommBank Stadium.

Parramatta came into this contest full of confidence with the return of their star spine members in Mitchell Moses and Clint Gutherson.

Meanwhile, Cronulla were down Nicho Hynes and Cam McInnes but did welcome back breakout star Braydon Trindall in the No.7 jersey.

The Sharks came firing out of the blocks and didn’t look like they were missing Hynes or McInnes in the opening stages of the contest.

Cronulla’s strong start was rewarded in the 4th minute when Sione Katoa crashed over to open the scoring on the night.

The visitor’s hard work in the early stages was undone just as quickly as Parramatta found its footing in the game and scored three unanswered tries to take the lead.

It all started with a simple try to Will Penisini but a sensational double courtesy of Maika Sivo gave the hosts a two-converted try lead.

The Eels stole all the momentum in the contest and threatened to run away with the result as the halftime break beckoned.

With the game seemingly hanging in the balance, a bit of individual brilliance from Ronaldo Mulitalo set up Will Kennedy under the posts to put Cronulla right back in the contest.

The late try from the Sharks ensured they would go into the break only down by six points as they aimed to avoid successive defeats for the first time this season.

It was a polar opposite start to the second half for the Eels, as the hosts dominated the opening stages and eventually cracked the Sharks defence once again.

After forcing Cronulla into conceding a handful of set restarts, the Eels finally struck through Junior Paulo who willed his way over the line from close distance.

Parramatta seemingly sealed the win in the 57th minute after a sensational run from Mitchell Moses allowed Bailey Simonsson to cross over uncontested in the corner.

With the match all but over, Cronulla flipped the script on their opponents with two quickfire tries to close the gap to within one try.

Daniel Atkinson started off the late revival with a valiant effort in front of the line whilst Katoa bagged his second of the game minutes later.

Parramatta re-asserted itself back into the lead with a late Dylan Brown try in the final ten minutes to seal the win.