Eight Eels too sick to play

PARRAMATTA doctor Michael Johnson last night declared eight Eels were so sick they should not have played in the surprise flogging at the hands of Gold Coast.

With captain Scott Prince pulling the strings in a superlative display and fullback Preston Campbell adding some breathtaking touches, the Titans ran in seven tries on the way to a 38-12 win.

But Parramatta then took the extraordinary step of bringing Johnson to the post-match media conference to explain an illness that had torn through the team in the days leading up to the match.

"There has been a virus going through the club and it has slowly affected more and more players," Johnson said in the wake of Parramatta dropping out of the top eight.

"Ben Smith pulled out before the game, Tim Smith was only able to play half of the game, Nathan (Cayless), Fui Fui Moi Moi, Josh Cordoba and a few others were also affected.

"We brought 17 up. Maybe eight of them shouldn't have played, ideally.

"It's a virus that leads to gastroenteritis. It can come from restaurants, unwashed lettuce, that sort of thing. It seems to have been sweeping through western Sydney."

Captain Cayless stressed he did not want to detract from Gold Coast's performance and two former Eels in the victorious side, Brett Delaney and Matt Petersen, were determined it would not.

"That's the NRL," said Petersen. "If you show up to play, then you have to deal with all sorts of things."

Delaney added: "I heard afterwards a few of them were sick. It's one of those things. I reckon the way we played today, we would have been hard to beat no matter what."

But Campbell said: "They did look flat. A few of them looked a bit pale out there."

Eels coach Michael Hagan, who had to call in Joel Reddy at the 11th-hour, described the performance as "unacceptable" – regardless of the physical hurdles.

The Titans had the match won when they led 22-0 at halftime on the back of four unanswered tries, and a fifth was disallowed under the controversial obstruction rule.

Yesterday's game was just seven minutes old when Gold Coast second-rower Anthony Laffranchi crashed over to the right of the posts, with Preston Campbell adding the extras.
Five minutes later, captain Scott Prince threw a dummy and put fullback Campbell over with a seemingly masterful piece of halfback play.

But video referee Tim Mander ruled defender Tim Smith had been obstructed and the capacity crowd howled as the red light was flashed.

It could have been a turning point – Eels prop Fui Fui Moi Moi lost the ball over the line not long afterwards – but it wasn't.

In the 19th minute, Campbell was tackled high by Nathan Hindmarsh and bounced straight back to his feet, passing to Prince who kicked into the corner. The bounce was perfect for winger Jake Webster who scored.

Fourteen more minutes passed and Prince kicked the ball off the outside of his right boot in midfield, Campbell regathered and replacement Josh Graham galloped away to score. And with three minutes left before the break, Mat Rogers got his first try in a premiership game since returning from rugby union when Prince put him over in the corner and Campbell converted.

Adding to Parramatta's woes were centre Timana Tahu's hamstring injury, ruling him out of City-Country, and a medial ligament strain to Moi Moi.

GOLD COAST 38 (A Laffranchi 2, M Rogers 2, J Graham, M Petersen, J Webster tries; P Campbell 3, B Delaney 2 goals)

PARRAMATTA 12 (N Hindmarsh, P Marsh tries; L Burt 2 goals).

Referee: T Archer.
Crowd: 18,021.