Eels, Bunnies play out draw

The South Sydney Rabbitohs and Parramatta Eels fought out a controversial 16-16 draw at a rain-soaked ANZ Stadium on Friday night.

With nine seconds remaining in golden-point extra-time, the Bunnies were awarded a scrum deep in Eels territory only to be denied a final shot at victory when referee Brett Suttor called time-on before Craig Wing could feed the ball.

While the controversial ruling denied the Bunnies the chance to steal a last-gasp victory, they were in fact fortunate to escape with a point against a more committed Eels line-up.

Having shot out to an early 10-0 lead, Jason Taylor's men could not shake the Jarryd Hayne inspired Eels, who drew level on 73 minutes through a Luke Burt penalty-goal and had the final say of regulation time only to be denied by some desperate Bunnies defence.

The Eels also had the better of extra-time, firing four field-goal attempts - including Hayne's running effort which struck the crossbar - to the visitors' one, but it wasn't to be for the hosts.

The Rabbitohs made the most of an early error when new recruit Michael Crocker posted his first try of the campaign in the third minute.

Wing, who was forced to wear the No.7 after the late withdrawal of Chris Sandow with an ankle injury, fired a pin-point cross-field kick to Fetuli Talanoa to tap the ball back for Crocker for the early score.

The Bunnies increased their advantage when man of the match and New South Wales hopeful Hayne threw a terrible no-look pass to Nathan Merritt who sprinted 60 metres to score.

Hayne did his best to mow Merritt down and looked to have denied the Rabbitohs winger as both players crashed into the uprights, but the try was awarded after lengthy analysis from the man upstairs.

Issac Luke's 16th-minute conversion made it 10-0 the Rabbitohs' way.

The Parramatta full-back made amends nine minutes later when he crashed through three defenders to cut the deficit to a converted try.

Hayne's reply sparked the Eels into action but despite dominating the latter stages of the half they headed into the break trailing 10-4.

Momentum stayed with the hosts when Eric Grothe marked his comeback from injury with a try three minutes in.

Hayne was again heavily involved, delivering the final pass from first receiver to send the big winger over untouched to slice the deficit to two points.

Having been starved of possession either side of the interval, the Bunnies made the most of a rare attacking opportunity when Luke Capewell cut through in the 53rd minute.

A rare conversion from Wing restored South Sydney's lead beyond a converted try at 16-8.

But the Eels were far from done as Hayne took full advantage of consecutive penalties to crash over for his second try in the 66th minute before Burt levelled things up.

And that's how it stayed.

South Sydney Rabbitohs 16
Tries: Crocker, Merritt, Capewell,
Goals: Luke, Wing

Parramatta Eels 16
Tries: Hayne 2, Grothe,
Goals: Burt 2
@ ANZ Stadium, 22/05/09. Crowd: 10,670.