Easter Monday has delivered one of the greatest games of footy you will ever see, with a Jock Madden penalty goal in golden point extra-time helping the Wests Tigers knock off the Eels, who lost two outside backs to sickening injuries.
Moments after Mitch Moses sliced his long-range field goal attempt to the right, Madden was gifted two points from next to the uprights after Dylan Walker jumped the gun to be offside as he tried to pressure Madden’s attempt.
The Tigers five-eighth coolly slotted the goal to seal a 22-20 result that has their fans dreaming of a return to the finals after a 15-year wait.
HIGH DRAMA
The Monday afternoon classic threatened to boil over after a fiery moment saw Luke Laulilii sent to the sin bin for a mid-air tackle that resulted in Parramatta winger Bailey Simonsson being taken from the field on a medi-cab.
A record crowd at CommBank Stadium was treated to the game of the year, which could have an explosive post-mortem after players from both sides clashed on the sideline while Simonsson was being treated.
The winger landed horribly on his left foot after he was tackled in the air while contesting a kick, with referee Peter Gough opting to send Laulilii from the field with 21 minutes to play.
“Foul play, tackles him in the air and there’s a high risk of injury as we can clearly see. He’s in the bin,” the referee said.
Incredibly, rookie sensation Apa Twidle produced a moment for the ages when he scored a cracking try with his first touch in the NRL.
And he wasn’t done, with Twidle – fresh from four tries in NSW Cup last week – scoring from the very next set to tie things up to send the Eels faithful into raptures with the ground becoming a sea of blue and gold flags.
The Eels were already down an outside back after centre Sean Russell was knocked out in the first half.
The Bears-bound centre set up the opening try of the afternoon but was forced from the field late in the first half when he collided heads with teen sensation Heamasi Makasini who juggled the ball in contact.
Russell was in a bad way but was able to walk off the field, with the referee penalising him for rushing out of the line and failing in his duty of care which was similar to a Jack Wighton incident last year.
The Tigers scored from the next set when Kai Pearce-Paul offloaded to Adam Doueihi, with the Englishman setting up another one a few minutes later when he popped another ball to Jahream Bula.
PENALTY PERFECTION
Mitch Moses was irate when told by Gough that he couldn’t challenge a crucial play just before half-time when Jack Williams appeared to have the ball knocked out of his hands a metre from the line.
But the decision came back to help them at the death when Moses made a break, was ankle-tapped by Api Koroisau and then challenged that he was hit high by Samuela Fainu.
The Bunker only needed one look at it to see that the contact was high, with Moses picking himself up to slot the goal that put them up 20-18 with three minutes to play.
But there was still plenty of time for drama with the Tigers regathering the short kick-off and then earning a penalty a play later when Sione Fainu was collected high.
That left Madden with a shot from 38m out to tie things up, with the man filling in for the injured Jarome Luai nailing the biggest shot of his career to send it to golden point.
FINALS FANTASY
It’s been 15 long years since the Wests Tigers last made the finals, but a return to the big time feels inevitable.
There have been several false dawns for the Tigers but they’re playing as well as any team not named Penrith after they jumped to second spot on the ladder.
Pearce-Paul and Bula were enormous for the Tigers, while their big men off the bench also helped to flip momentum their way.
There will be a nervous wait for skipper Api Koroisau who was placed on report for a hip-drop tackle, while the Eels have plenty of injury headaches with five-eighth Jonah Pezet also forced off with a hamstring injury.
The Eels were much better than what they were against Penrith, but coach Jason Ryles now has huge concerns with so many of his players unavailable.
