Eels 40 Wests Tigers 12

WESTS TIGERS halfback Robbie Farah was adamant before the game that he and his teammates weren't psyched out by the fact Parramatta had won seven straight games against them.

Well, if they didn't have a complex beforehand, then they have surely got one now, because the Eels stretched that streak to eight last night and the Tigers allowed their frustration to get the better of them in the process.

But there was bad news for the Eels near the end of the game, when their star lock, Feleti Mateo, was left prone on the turf after injuring his knee.

He limped off with a minute to go, threatening his place in the team's desperate campaign to make the finals.

The result had been assured when Tigers prop Bryce Gibbs was reported by referee Matt Cecchin for a forearm to the head of Eels centre Krisnan Inu in a tackle, in the 67th minute.

There was a brief melee before Cecchin restored order.

Four minutes later, Tigers replacement forward Corey Payne was penalised for roughing up Eels fullback Jarryd Hayne with an extravagant facial in a tackle.

Parramatta's win kept their finals hopes alive, but with several teams around them on the competition table winning on the weekend, they stay where they began the round - in 12th place, two points outside of the eight.

The Tigers began the round in ninth, out of the eight on points for-and-against differential only, but now they are 11th, and, like the Eels, two points away from the eight.

Parramatta led 22-0 after 33 minutes, and although Wests Tigers captain Brett Hodgson had felt compelled to complain three times to Cecchin about decisions that had gone against his team, there was no doubt the Eels deserved to be well on top.

Eels winger Taulima Tautai crashed over in the sixth minute and prop Fuifui Moimoi strolled through a turnstile tackle and over the line in the 14th.

It was 10-0 and the Tigers were feeling the heat. After the third straight penalty to Parramatta, Hodgson marched up to Cecchin for the first time. He complained again after the next tackle, for a strip, two minutes later, presumably in the belief Eels hooker Matt Keating had knocked on in a previous tackle. Cecchin had ruled knock back.

When Nathan Hindmarsh went over for Paramatta's third try, the window of opportunity had all but closed on the Tigers, and they weren't doing anything to suggest they might prise it open before half-time. In the 27th minute, Krisnan Inu played the ball with no dummy half in sight, but the marker - winger Taniela Tuiaki - didn't react quickly enough to dive on the ball before the Eels got their act together.

The Tigers finally got close to scoring in the 29th minute, but they were playing desperate, catch-up football and Benji Marshall's grubber kick to the corner was going too fast and too low for Halatau to pick up cleanly with the defence converging, and he knocked on a few metres out.

Soon after, the Tigers got another crack at the Parramatta line, but centre Chris Lawrence knocked on again. The Eels quickly moved the ball up the other end of the field and a few tackles later Tautai crashed over for his second try, to make it 22-0. Hodgson complained a third time to the referee after that try, but for what wasn't clear. The wind had begun to howl at this point and the ball from Inu's conversion attempt was blown across the field.

The rain arrived a few minutes after the wind, but Parramatta winger Tony Williams matched the weather for wildness when he saved the ball from going out but threw a no-look pass over his shoulder that Marshall grabbed on the bounce before dashing 62m for a try. Hodgson converted and the Tigers went to the break trailing 22-6.

Five minutes into the second half the pounding rain suddenly disappeared, along with the wind, and in the 52nd minute, the Tigers put themselves in the game for the first time when second-rower Chris Heighington scored off a bomb from Farah.

But the thought that they might be back in with a chance didn't last long. Tuiaki knocked on from the kick-off and soon after, video referee Tim Mander judged Hayne to have scored a try. Replays suggested Hayne had been guilty of a double movement, but Mander thought differently. The result was that, with Inu's conversion, Parramatta led 28-12 with 24 minutes to go. The Tigers weren't going to come back from that.

PARRAMATTA 40 (J Hayne 2 T Tautai 2 N Hindmarsh F Mateo F Moimoi tries, K Inu 6 goals) bt WESTS TIGERS 12 (C Heighington B Marshall tries, B Hodgson 2 goals) at Parramatta Stadium. Referee: M Cecchin. Crowd: 13,065.