THEY say an eye for an eye, but in Joel Reddy's case yesterday it was a shoulder for a shoulder. After missing Mark Gasnier late in the first half with a weak attempt to use his shoulder, he knew he had to lean it into something significant later.

So when Stuart Webb charged Reddy's way at a critical point of the game, he put so much force into the hit he almost put his shoulder out.

Afterwards, some spoke about Dragons five-eighth Jamie Soward taking the wrong option when he chose to pass to Webb on the outside rather than Ben Creagh on the inside, letting a try - and perhaps the game - go begging.

But take nothing away from Reddy's 49th-minute hit, which forced Webb to plant the ball on sideline chalk rather than try-line chalk.

"Yeah, I missed one earlier on 'Gaz' when Chase Stanley scored the first try so I knew I had to make up for that one," he said.

"I didn't actually know who was outside. I was up with [Eels fullback] Luke Burt and I was covering the inside, so I had to try and stop that pass first. He gave it to the outside and Stuart Webb pinned his ears back. I just did my best."

His best is not always good enough. Reddy has been at times maligned for defensive lapses, and the effort on Gasnier three minutes out from the break was proof of that. Admittedly though, Gasnier beat more Parramatta players than just Reddy.

Reddy rarely gets the accolades afforded to the stars of the Eels' back line such as Jarryd Hayne, Brett Finch, Burt and Eric Grothe, even if, like Grothe, he is the son of a former legend (giving them more in common than the odd defensive blunder).

But that's not to say Rod Reddy's now 22-year-old boy does not work hard at his game, and he said he never stopped working on his defence. "It's something you can't stop working on," Reddy said. "You've always got to improve because once you stop working on it, you get into bad habits.

"I'm pretty happy with it at the moment, but you never stop working on it."

The tackle was the best example of why Dragons coach Nathan Brown lamented missed opportunities after the match and his Eels counterpart, Michael Hagan, praised his side's scramble. The Dragons, remarkably, made six line-breaks to three.

They just came up against a Reddy-made brick wall.