![\"Bailey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/822c693dd125742e3df9946b1a5fcc40.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nEels skipper Mitch Moses was left baffled by a controversial call that went against his side in an Easter Monday thriller against Wests Tigers.<\/p>\n
Tigers five-eighth Jock Madden kicked his side to a 22-20 golden point victory in a thrilling and dramatic contest in front of a sold out crowd at Western Sydney Stadium.<\/p>\n
Madden kicked a penalty goal to level the scores with seconds remaining in normal time after a controversial high tackle call and then the stand-in five-eighth added another penalty in the final minute of golden point to sink the Eels and move to second on the NRL ladder.<\/p>\n
A thrilling game deserves better than to have discussion dominated by the officiating, but the Eels felt incredibly hard done by with some tough calls going against them throughout the contest.<\/p>\n
The Eels led 10-0 early thanks to tries to Bailey Simonsson and Junior Paulo before the Wests Tigers hit back thanks to Adam Doueihi and Jahream Bula.<\/p>\n
Parramatta felt they should have scored just before half time after 150-gamer Jack Williams burst through but had the ball knocked out of his hands as he got up to play the ball, with referee Peter Gough ruling that he was promoting the ball to score.<\/p>\n
“He [Jack Williams] felt like he was held and had about four players on him, so he tried to get up and play the ball,” Moses said in the press conference\u00a0<\/p>\n
“And then a [hand] comes flying in, so I asked to challenge it, and then he [referee Peter Gough] said that he hadn’t called held yet, so there was no point in me challenging it because I was never going to win it.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know how he\u2026 had about three\u2026 I don’t know.”<\/p>\n
Jason Ryles pointed out that had Williams scored in that situation it would have almost certainly been called a double movement.<\/p>\n
“That’s what I’m saying,” Moses said. “I just\u2026 I don’t know.”<\/p>\n
Faaletino Tavana scored just after the break to extend the Tigers’ lead, but the game seemingly turned the Eels way on the hour mark when Luke Laulilii was sent to the sin bin for tackling Simonsson in the air.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bailey Simonsson was carted off the field. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor)<\/p>\n
Both sets of players came together amidst a febrile atmosphere from the capacity crowd while Simonsson lay stricken on the turf, with Ryles lamenting that his side had been subject to another long-term injury as a result of foul play.<\/p>\n
“It’s foul play that’s injuring the guys and that they’re long-term injuries,” Ryles said.<\/p>\n
“Those contests, they happen every week, same with the hip drop \u2014 and the players don’t actually mean to do it, we understand that, but it just happens\u2026<\/p>\n
“There’s a reason that those actions are outlawed because of what we’re going through now.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure what you want me to say or do, but that’s what we sign up for each week and we’ve just got to crack on.”<\/p>\n
However, Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall questioned whether it was even a penalty.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t agree [with the sin bin]. Simple as that,” Marshall said.<\/p>\n
“It must have been [influenced by the injury] because if he didn’t get injured, it would have been the same result.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t agree, but whatever, we just had to deal with it.”<\/p>\n
Shortly after Simonsson was carried off the field and straight to hospital having suffered a nasty dislocation to his ankle, debutant Apa Twidle scored with his very first touch in first grade, a spectacular put down.<\/p>\n
![\"Te](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/7bf54719d82943537b43a9c0cf1efb92.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Te Hurinui Twidle of the Eels celebrates scoring his second try with team mates during the NRL Round 5 match between the Parramatta Eels and the Wests Tigers at Western Sydney Stadium in Sydney, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AAP: MArk Evans)<\/p>\n
Incredibly, Twidle made a line break in the very next set after the Tigers kicked off with what was his second touch in first grade, before scoring another sensational try with his third touch to bring the scores level on 18-18.<\/p>\n
The Eels felt like they may have won it after Moses burst through the line and was then caught high, giving the Eels a kickable penalty that the skipper converted to put the hosts 20-18 up.<\/p>\n
But then the Tigers hit back with a contentious penalty that saw Sam Tuivaiti pinged for a high shot when replays showed he hit the shoulder and not the head.<\/p>\n
Madden held his nerve to send the game to golden point.<\/p>\n
Moses missed a long range field goal by a matter of centimetres in golden point, before Madden missed from 30 metres out, only for referee Gough to rule that Dylan Walker was offside.<\/p>\n
Madden slotted the winner from 20 metres out to claim a wild victory.<\/p>\n
Look back on how all the action unfolded in our live blog.<\/p>\n
Key Events<\/p>\n
1h ago1 hours agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:13am<\/p>\n
1h ago1 hours agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:04am<\/p>\n
1h ago1 hours agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:03am<\/p>\n
Show all key events3h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 6:06amParramatta Eels vs Wests Tigers<\/p>\n
32m agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:30am<\/p>\n
Let’s leave it there<\/p>\n
Thanks for being with us tonight.<\/p>\n
It was quite the way to end a long weekend of NRL football.<\/p>\n
If you’ve got used to watching NRL every day over the past five days, don’t worry, you won’t have to wait long to wait until the next instalment – with the in-form Panthers hitting your airwaves on Thursday night against the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
We’ll be here for that, so until then, thanks for being with us and have a great week.<\/p>\n
36m agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:26am<\/p>\n
Marshall ‘didn’t agree’ with the sin bin<\/p>\n
Benji Marshall is asked about the sin binning of Luke Laulilii.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t agree. Simple as that,” he says.<\/p>\n
“It must have been [influenced by the injury].<\/p>\n
“Because if he didn’t get injured, it would have been the same result.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t agree, but whatever, we just had to deal with it.<\/p>\n
“I thought they did a good job of taking advantage of that and scored two tries down there in that time we had 12 men.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t agree with it.”<\/p>\n
He is asked whether he will appeal if Laulilii is charged.<\/p>\n
“I don’t have an answer for that, to be honest,” he says.<\/p>\n
“I’ll have to think about that more thoroughly and have a look into it before I say something stupid.”<\/p>\n
39m agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:23am<\/p>\n
Benji Marshall praises Tigers and Parramatta<\/p>\n
Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall is speaking now.<\/p>\n
He says he’s proud of his team.<\/p>\n
“I thought the way they’ve applied themselves to start the season, the way they trained in the pre-season, I was pretty relaxed the whole time, to be honest, and confident that regardless of the way the result went, they would fight their way back into it to either be a chance to win it or win it,” he says.<\/p>\n
“It’s a tough way to lose for Para and I take my hat off to them because they had a lot of injuries.<\/p>\n
“They moved a lot of their players around and they fought their way back into a game that we had in control there for a while.<\/p>\n
“So they had a good team and I thought they had a really good performance given who they didn’t have.<\/p>\n
“So it’s a tough way to lose, to be honest – and if we’re on the other side of it, I would have been content with it because of the way my players fought back into the game and gave themselves a chance to win it again.<\/p>\n
“I’m really proud of our effort.”<\/p>\n
He praises\u00a0Samuela Fainu too, for winning the short kick off and for letting the referees off the hook after they missed, what he said, was an offside.<\/p>\n
“Samuela catching it – he’s been doing a great job for us in that department. He’s got the best hands in the club, in my opinion.<\/p>\n
“To be able to get the ball back, then execute.<\/p>\n
“Obviously, we didn’t get the look we wanted the first time, which I thought that offside on that one too, then the ref didn’t call it, and then the second one, I’m glad he caught it because it was bluntly, blatantly offside.”<\/p>\n
44m agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:18am<\/p>\n
The winning moment<\/p>\n
Want to relive the winning moment from the match tonight?<\/p>\n
Why wouldn’t you (Eels fans excepted).<\/p>\n
Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n
46m agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:16am<\/p>\n
Ryles says he has no idea who will play on the Eels’ right next week<\/p>\n
Ryles is running out of troops, it seems.<\/p>\n
“Moses would be the half-back… That’s a good question,” Jason Ryles says, after asking if the journalist who asked the question wanted to play.<\/p>\n
“So, yeah, let me have a think about that.<\/p>\n
“We’ll look at it this week – there’s a there’s a few balls in there at the moment, so we’ll, yeah, like to sit down as a coaching group, sit with the leaders and just see where we’re going to go with it.”<\/p>\n
48m agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:14am<\/p>\n
‘There’s a reason those actions are outlawed’ Ryles<\/p>\n
Jason Ryles says it’s disappointing that two season-ending injuries have impacted his team as a result of foul play.<\/p>\n
“It’s foul play that’s injuring the guys and that they’re long-term injuries,” Ryles says.<\/p>\n
“There’s been two season enders and one eight-weeker.<\/p>\n
But those contests, they happen every week, same with the hip drop.<\/p>\n
“And the players don’t actually mean to do it, we understand that, but it just happens…<\/p>\n
“There’s a reason that those actions are outlawed because of what we’re going through now.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure what you want me to say or do, but that’s what we sign up for each week and we’ve just got to crack on.<\/p>\n
“As disappointing as it is, it’s another opportunity for our next player in.”<\/p>\n
51m agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:11am<\/p>\n
Defeat nothing to do with the referee: Ryles<\/p>\n
Jason Ryles chips in about the refereeing decisions.<\/p>\n
“For me with the ref, we don’t let that come into it.<\/p>\n
“It’s not why we lost, it’s not why we lost.<\/p>\n
“They’ve got a hard job, they get put in some pretty high pressure situations, and if we got the back end of our first half right we wouldn’t have had to worry about the ref.<\/p>\n
“Got nothing to do with the ref.<\/p>\n
“It’s just another situation that everyone can learn from, I hope.”<\/p>\n
53m agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:09am<\/p>\n
Mitch Moses lost for words over controversial call<\/p>\n
Mitch Moses is asked about the issues with the referee – particularly the knock on ruling on Jack Williams just before half time.<\/p>\n
“He [Jack Williams] felt like he was held and had about four players on him, so he tried to get up and play the ball.<\/p>\n
“And then a [hand] comes flying in, so I asked to challenge it, and then he [referee Peter Gough] said that he hadn’t called held yet.<\/p>\n
“So there was no point in me challenging it because I was never going to win it.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know how he… had about three… I don’t know.<\/p>\n
“He pretty much told me not to challenge it because he told me he didn’t say held. So there’s no way I was going to win that.”<\/p>\n
Ryles chips in saying: “If you scored it would have been a double movement.”<\/p>\n
Moses replied: “That’s what I’m saying. Like if he had a crack there and then I just, I don’t know..”<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 9:01am<\/p>\n
Jason Ryles: ‘It was adversity, all right’<\/p>\n
Here is the Parramatta coach, Jason Ryles.<\/p>\n
He is asked if he was pleased with the performance despite the adversity.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, it was adversity, all right,” he says.<\/p>\n
“It was obviously not the result we were looking for, but I just said to the players then, the performance is what really matters tonight.<\/p>\n
“I think there was a period there where we had, I think three five-eighths, three or four different combinations in our centres, three combinations in our back row, and then we had three row wingers.<\/p>\n
“To be in the game that deep for as long as we were and to show the fight, especially in front of our fans, that’s really important to us.<\/p>\n
“The results are really disappointing, like really disappointing.<\/p>\n
“But if we continue to show that each week, we’re going to win a lot more games than we lose.”<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:50am<\/p>\n
Twidle told his family not to fly over![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/lcimg-92aa1111-1c2e-47dc-a13b-a60e4935c8e3.jpeg\")
(ABC Sport)<\/p>\n
Here is Apa Twidle, speaking to ABC radio.<\/p>\n
“I told my mum don\u2019t fly over – because all my family live in New Zealand,” he says.<\/p>\n
“Last night I found out my mum was flying over this morning.<\/p>\n
“Lucky she came because I do everything for her and my daughter so it\u2019s good to have them.”<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:40am<\/p>\n
We’re just waiting to hear from the coaches<\/p>\n
I think some of the comments will be pretty interesting, truth be told.<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:24am<\/p>\n
You can’t fault the entertainment value<\/p>\n
Thanks for the blog Simon, a great game to wrap up the Easter round albeit not the outcome I was hoping for but an entertaining game nonetheless \u2013 see you next time. <\/p>\n
– Mike<\/p>\n
It was a cracking game for sure.<\/p>\n
Plenty of things to talk about in the aftermath, no doubt.<\/p>\n
But a tremendous contest.<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:22am<\/p>\n
Doueihi laments slow Tigers starts<\/p>\n
Adam Doueihi is speaking to Fox Sports now.<\/p>\n
He says it was a “scrappy game” from the Tigers.<\/p>\n
“We find ourselves 10 points behind consistently this season,” he says.<\/p>\n
“We back our fitness … in terms of starting the game, we definitely have to fix that up.<\/p>\n
“Today, down to 12 players, we’ll definitely take the two points and take it to Newcastle next week.”<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:20am<\/p>\n
Jock Madden thrilled with victory<\/p>\n
Here is Jock Madden. The game winner.<\/p>\n
“Credit to Fonua [Pole] for getting the quick play the ball,” he says of the match-winning penalty, talking to Fox Sports.<\/p>\n
“Obviously I missed that field goal itself, but for him to get a quick play the ball and for them to be offside, credit to him.”<\/p>\n
He adds that he just had to shut out all the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
“I just stick to my process,” he says.<\/p>\n
“You try and block out that noise and you just stick to that process.<\/p>\n
He is, of course, thrilled with the result.<\/p>\n
“It was awesome,” he says.<\/p>\n
“The boys stayed patient throughout the whole game there.<\/p>\n
“That’s just the side we are now.<\/p>\n
“Obviously when you win it’s a good win around training.<\/p>\n
“We’re not getting complacent at all.<\/p>\n
“The pats on the back, we’re not feeling that at the moment. There’s things we need to work at in training … and we’ll go again this week.”<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:13amTHE TIGERS WIN IN GOLDEN POINT!<\/p>\n
One of the most dramatic, thrilling matches you’ll ever see.<\/p>\n
Two massive rivals. A packed stadium. Controversy. Brilliance. Astonishing.<\/p>\n
What a game.<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:12am<\/p>\n
GP5′ The Tigers have a penalty 20 metres out<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:11am<\/p>\n
GP4′ PENALTY TIGERS!<\/p>\n
Dylan Walker is absolutely livid!<\/p>\n
He’s been called for offside!<\/p>\n
Referee Gough says you can’t challenge a call like that.<\/p>\n
The kick was wide and touched as it was charged down.<\/p>\n
Was he offside inside the 10?<\/p>\n
I don’t know. I don’t think he was.<\/p>\n
No, on second viewing, he was.<\/p>\n
Heartbreak.<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:11am<\/p>\n
GP3′ THE TIGERS FORCE A KNOCK ON!<\/p>\n
Jock Madden was set 30 metres out.<\/p>\n
He decided against it.<\/p>\n
He chipped over the top instead.<\/p>\n
Jack Williams, in NRL game 150, drops it cold though!<\/p>\n
The Tigers have it 20 metres out.<\/p>\n
1h agoMon 6 Apr 2026 at 8:09am<\/p>\n
GP2′ MITCH MOSES MISSES BY A CENTIMETRE!<\/p>\n
Moses attempted the kick from just inside his own half.<\/p>\n
It was a dog of a kick, but it looked like it was going to come back and fade inside the post.<\/p>\n
But it didn’t\/<\/p>\n
![\"Simon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758474549_328_lcimg-d13a2dbc-1a4b-4fa4-a967-f2a4bf135b6f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n