Eels and Smith face true test


THE BIG MATCH

One thing you can be sure about when Parramatta meet Newcastle at Parramatta Stadium tonight is that the Knights will ask the Eels a hell of a lot more questions in attack than the Raiders did last weekend.

Parramatta got away to a storming start against Canberra, but after the Raiders narrowed the gap the Eels spent most of the second half defending a 16-12 lead that later stretched to 18-12 with a penalty.

Canberra played the percentages, as they usually do, driving up the middle of the field through the forwards and hoping for a penalty or an Eels error.

Neither came and Parramatta hung on to win, but the Knights won't play like that. If they're in front, they'll keep pressing to try to get further in front, and if they're behind, they won't wait for something to happen. They'll try to make it happen.

The Eels have rarely played for 80 minutes this season. They've dropped off for periods in most games and can't afford to make that mistake against Newcastle. Not when the Knights have got the world's greatest player, Andrew Johns, running the show and champion hooker Danny Buderus ready to punish slack defence by running from dummy-half.

This is the second time these teams have met in 2006. They played in the opening round and the Knights were untroubled in winning, 25-6, at home. The form of the Eels that night was to prove indicative of their form this season.

Newcastle went through a slump recently, but they emerged from that with a comprehensive 26-12 win over Manly last weekend. Johns was on fire and his teammates followed. It's an old story. The Knights will be even stronger this week, with Buderus and second-rower Steve Simpson returning from State of Origin.

Parramatta will get Nathan Hindmarsh and Eric Grothe back from Origin, but unfortunately for them Timana Tahu is unavailable after getting injured playing for NSW.

The Eels have won two in a row, but the Raiders were without several stars and the other win was against bottom team South Sydney. This game will be the test of whether Parramatta are in genuine revival mode.

While a failure to knuckle down for the duration of games has been a huge problem for the Eels this year, recent history says dealing with the Johns factor will be a particularly difficult problem for them.

Parramatta won three straight games against Newcastle during 2004-05, but on the first occasion Johns was carted off with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, which led to a reconstruction, on the second he was still out recovering and on the third he was unavailable due to Origin.

The two times they have met since, Johns has starred in Knights wins. He put on a clinic for Parramatta's young halfback, Tim Smith, in a 16-10 win late last season at Parramatta Stadium and again showed how it was done in round one.

Smith, who has had a wretched season, showed good signs in the win over Canberra, but there is still a way to go before he can get back to the form that won him the NRL's rookie of the year award last season.

The common mistake Smith has made is forcing passes that shouldn't have been thrown. Too many of them have come loose from intended receivers, who could not control the ball under extreme pressure, or gone forward or to ground.

Last year, when he played opposite Johns for the first time, Smith went into his shell a bit. When they met this year, he tried too hard and made mistakes. Smith has to try to get his own game in order and forget who he is playing against, even if it is Joey.