Jason Ryles has made no secret of his disappointment in ‘individual lapses’ in the Eels defence following the side’s 48-20 drubbing against the Panthers on Saturday night.

The Panthers ran roughshod over Parramatta for extended periods in the local derby at CommBank Stadium, capitalising on high completion rates and momentum wrought by strong possession and set tackle restarts.

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The Eels at times showed glimpses of the form that helped them finish the back half of 2025 so strongly, but for Ryles, the side’s “individual lapses in defence” are causing him huge frustration following mixed 2-2 results this season.

“Defence is our biggest issue at the moment, individual lapses in defence [in particular],” Ryles said.

“We’re giving teams too big a start, the resolve that we had there for the last 10 to 12 games last year – or more – doesn’t seem to be there at the moment.”

All told, the Eels missed 46 tackles and conceded 12 errors against the ever-clinical Penrith on Saturday.

Of those, Jack Williams contributed six missed tackles in the middle, while Jonah Pezet and Sean Russell each had five missed tackles on the edges. Utility Tallyn Da Silva also had five missed tackles.

“We fought hard in Brisbane, we fought really hard against the Dragons last week. We had it for little periods,” Ryles said of his team’s resolve.

“It’s not just one person, it’s different individuals and the whole team. We need to find that again and something we need to work on.”

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Parramatta leapt out of the blocks after half-time to put on three tries in quick succession against the defiant Panthers. In fact, with four tries in total, the Eels posed the biggest threat to Penrith’s defensive structures all season.

“We won the second half, and the positive is that we just scored four tries against a team that had three scored against them in the games before,” said Ryles.

“At the end of the day we’ve got points in us but we need to find our resolve again defensively.

“The promising part about it is the similar plays that we had at the end of last year. We have it for periods, we just need to define it for longer periods.”

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Eels playmaker Mitch Moses said starts have been particularly troublesome for Parramatta this year. And although there were glimpses of promising attack, he too was disappointed in the Eels’ defence.

“We were focused on what works well for us. We pulled them apart a little bit but we still had 48 points put on us and that’s the part we’ve got to change,” he explained.

“We haven’t been starting well. Every single game this year we haven’t been starting well and we’ve been chasing our tail. We need to be better there, if we can start well and put ourselves in the game early, we’re probably not chasing our tail like we have been.”

Defence could be the least of the Eels’ woes heading into their Easter Monday clash against the in-form Wests Tigers. The side is sweating on scans for star fullback Isaiah Iongi, who suffered suspected syndesmosis after an apparent hip drop from Mitch Kenny that caused a controversial sin bin.

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The Eels also lost interchange forward Matt Doorey with a suspected ACL against Penrith, just a week after J’maine Hopgood was sidelined for the season with the same injury.

“There’s not much to say about it, a suspected ACL [for Matt] and Issy’s (Isaiah) suspected syndesmosis. Someone else gets an opportunity at their misfortune,” said Ryles.

“I’ll tell you after we get a scan on Monday.”

Asked about the Eels depth with the injuries, Ryles was non-committal.

“We’re about to find out. It’s an opportunity for someone else to come in and put the jersey on,” he said.

“We’ll have to wait and see.”