Parramatta’s premiership hopes go up in smoke after Rabbitohs ‘bashing’

Parramatta Eels manager Brad Arthur has admitted his concerns over his side’s Premiership hopes after a ‘bashing’ against South Sydney on Friday night.

The hosts were overwhelmed and outclassed by the Bunnies in a 26-0 drubbing at CommBank Stadium, missing tackles and failing to contain the likes of Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker and Tevita Tatola.

Parramatta conceded well over 2,200 yards in the loss as Arthur told the media his side was never in the game physically.

“From the start I thought we were physically far from the pace in the middle,” he said.

“They rolled 60 meters on the first push. We didn’t physically go to the competition through the middle of the field.

“They just rolled over us too easily. They jumped out of tackles and sets of six turned into sets of 10 or 11 every time.

“We gave them too much ball early on and that really hurt us. Tentative is a good way of putting it.

“If you’re not going to be physical then it doesn’t matter who you play against, you don’t give yourself a chance and we’ve missed it a lot.”

Tatola and Mitchell both ran 200 yards, while an impressive 12 players from the Rabbitohs finished in the triple digits.

Parramatta was very inconsistent throughout the year and despite two impressive victories against heavyweight Penrith never managed to build a long winning streak.

Asked about his side’s lack of consistency, Arthur admitted it didn’t bode well but is more concerned about the effort against Souths.

“Yeah, it’s not great, but we’re not worried about consistency at the moment,” he said.

“I worry about the fact that there was no physicality in the middle of the field and we just got rolled over. We just gave them too much time.

“I don’t know why we didn’t start that way. I have to deal with it, but there has to be a real will and desire to start like this and put your body on the line.

“It was obvious we didn’t have it, and we paid the price for it.”

One thing that could help the Eels in the coming weeks leading up to the Finals is the imminent return of star halfback Mitchell Moses.

Arthur, out with a finger injury, revealed Moses has a chance to return for the Round 23 showdown with old rivals Canterbury.

“He’s pushing it and he might,” said Arthur.

“But we can’t turn that performance into anything tonight with Mitchell Moses around. We just weren’t good enough in the middle and we got beat up.

“We weren’t physical for some reason and we need to be physical because they’re a very good team and if you give them that much time and space with the ball they’re going to tear you to pieces and their form is very difficult to defend.

“You can’t defend it if you’re short on the defensive line because you’re on the ground because we got run over — it’s as simple as that.”