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Parramatta Eels coach Brad Arthur is pleased his team is finally finding ways to win tough games away from Bankwest Stadium.
Here is what he said following the Eels 12-4 win over the St George Illawarra Dragons at Jubilee Oval.
On the Eels tough win
“We are learning to win different ways. You know the games where we have played well, we can’t always win by two or three tries so we have had to learn to win at any cost and find a way to win and we did that tonight. We’ve had our struggles playing away from home and I thought our start was really good. We’ve put real emphasis around our start, our big boys were put through the middle early,” Arthur said.
On the Eels’ defenders
“We started well. The first set really set the tone for us,” Arthur said.
On the Eels’ race to the finals
“We’ve still got plenty of to work on. We came out in the second half and turned over too much possession on the back of set starts where we need to try to build a bit more pressure around that. So we need to build a bit of pressure. But I thought our response was good, you know it hasn’t’ been great in the past and we have put ourselves under pressure. We had to dig in (tonight) and we did,” Arthur said.
On Dylan Brown and Manu Ma’u’s try saving tackles
“Yeah, I thought their desperation on the line was good. Everyone worked really hard together and we did. We defended three, four sets in a row, especially in the first half, that probably set the standard for us for the rest of the game,” Arthur said.
On Kane Evan’s sin binning
“I think he was just tacking hard. I haven’t had a chance to watch the replay. There wasn’t much in it, was there? The boys are playing a tough sport, tackle, tackling hard,” Arthur said.
On Nathan Brown’s injury
“I think he just rolled his ankle, so nothing too serious,” Arthur said.
On Nathan Brown’s form
“Yeah he’s good, he’s good. He probably leads our pack, brings that energy and plays with plenty of intent. He gives you a bit of flexibility too because he can play good minutes if we need him to, gets off the line hard and defends and then he can play well with the football a bit,” Arthur said.
On Maika Sivo’s rookie year
“We only had three or four weeks with him in the pre-season because he had his shoulder reconstruction so, his fitness, he probably needs to work on and improve that, but he is going to be better on the back of another pre-season. He’s done really well, he knows the game pretty well, he understands it. Today, I thought he was good defensively. You know, he has been good with the ball, but there are a couple of things there defensively we have been working on with him. The good thing about him is he does what you ask him to do. In the trial against Penrith, you know he scored a nice try, changed hands with the ball so you could see he was going to be a good finisher, but then they (Penrith) made a line break and he chased someone down and tackled him and so I thought you know, I like that he likes both parts if it and you can just see at training any time we get a bit of an opportunity, he makes it and scores tries,” Arthur said.
