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Maika Sivo was a blessing and a curse for Parramatta on Friday night.
After being dropped from the team in the top end he came out and scored a hat trick against Manly, but a brain snap in the final 11 minutes cost him a trip to the sin bin and cost Parramatta the game.
Maika Sivo is sent to the sin bin minutes after scoring a hat trick.Credit: Getty
Reuben Garrick scored a double for the Sea Eagles while Sivo was in the bin, and the home team walked away with a comfortable 32-18 victory.
Eels skipper Clint Gutherson was ropeable after the game.
“It’s just stupid. We were right in the game, 10 minutes left, we just got Will [Penisini] back on. Last tackle, we catch the ball, give ourselves a chance,” Gutherson said.
“Just silly things at the moment that are really hurting us. Just missed tackles, penalties against us. Can’t do that in NRL games, doesn’t matter who you’re versing. Can’t do that in an NRL game.”
Eels coach Brad Arthur shared Gutherson’s frustration, after the team managed to keep Manly at bay until Sivo’s sin bin.
“It’s dumb isn’t it? It was 20-18, we were in front four tries to three, ten or eleven minutes to go,” Arthur said.
“There’s no point saying too much tonight, with all emotion, we’ll just let it settle, he [Sivo] doesn’t need me to tell him how silly it was. Because, we put him back on the team, and he showed why we put him back in the team because he scored a couple of those tries that probably no one else in our squad could score.”
Daly Cherry-Evans scores in the second half.Credit: Getty
It wasn’t the only stupid error from Parramatta on Friday night. Will Penisini was lucky the Sea Eagles didn’t pile on the points when he was sent to the sin bin earlier for a professional foul on Tom Trbojevic.
The Sea Eagles were lucky not to concede any points with a sin bin of their own, with Haumole Olakau’atu sent to the bin in the fourth minute for a spear tackle on Shaun Lane.
Coach Anthony Seibold was hopeful Olokau’atu would escape sanction.
“I thought it was an accident, it wasn’t like a typical lifting tackle. He hit him through the stomach, which is a really good tackle, and Chez [Daly Cherry-Evans] sort of was on top,” Seibold said.
“He did land in an unfortunate position, but he come back on, played the rest of the game. I thought 10 minutes was sufficient for the tackle. Hopefully nothing more comes of that.”
Overall, Seibold was happy with the team’s effort, despite a few defensive lapses.
“Parra were a desperate footy team tonight, weren’t they? They’ve been criticised heavily, they were going to play for their coach tonight, and we knew that there’d be a rebound. And they did. They rebounded that first half,” he said.
“But we were really good in that second half, and we were able to come away with a really decent win.”
