Eels ahead at break

Parramatta led the Roosters 26-14 at half-time in their round 24 NRL clash at the Sydney Football Stadium this afternoon.

The Eels scored five tries through Eric Grothe, Jarryd Hayne, Dean Widders, Ben Smith and Luke O'Dwyer while Luke Burt added three conversions. Ryan Cross (2) and Amos Roberts managed tries for the Roosters with Craig Fitzgibbon kicking one conversion.

It was the Roosters who opened the scoring in the fifth minute when Roberts scored during a set of six that had resulted from a penalty given to the home side within 10 metres of Parramatta's tryline.

With the ball spun towards the left touch line, Josh Lewis launched a flat cut-out pass to Cross, who brilliantly swivelled in a tackle to offload to an unmarked Roberts. The former Dragons and Panthers flank then squeezed just inside the corner post to touch down, and with approval from the video referee the Roosters had a 4-0 lead.

The Eels equalised from their first genuine entry into Roosters territory via Grothe, who crossed courtesy of some excellent lead-up work by O'Dwyer.

O'Dwyer angled a run towards the right touch line and in doing so drew the Eels defence, before releasing a flick pass that sent Grothe on an inside route to the tryline.

The conversion attempt was missed but the Eels assumed the lead when they too were rewarded for taking a tap from a penalty deep inside the opposition half. From the ensuring set of six John Morris threw a well-placed double cut-out that found Hayne on the chest, allowing the prolific try scorer to cross with relative ease after being left unmarked on the left wing.

This time Burt was successful with the conversion attempt to put the Eels out to a 10-4 lead but, as had proven to be the nature of the first half at this stage, the Roosters replied through Cross.

From their own 40-metre line, Lewis took the ball to the defensive line before placing a grubber in behind that was collected by Roberts. Roberts then offloaded to Cross, who beat the Eels cover defence, and with Fitzgibbon's conversion the scores were level.

However, Parramatta struck when Widders used a neat right-foot step to score his side's third try under the posts and they posted another four-pointer via Smith, who met a grubber in the in-goal area, after the bounce was misread by Roosters winger Sam Perrett.

Burt converted both tries to open up a 12-point lead, but Smith's try was virtually copied by the Roosters soon after when Jamie Soward placed a grubber into the in-goal area that was chased through by Cross for his second try.

Parramatta, though, found a response with O'Dwyer scoring in the right-hand corner in the final minute of the first half after accepting a pass from Hayne, who had brilliantly marked a Wade McKinnon cross-field bomb.