A second-half try to Reed Mahoney proved the difference as Parramatta opened the NRL season with a gritty 8-2 victory over Canterbury.
Scores were locked at 2-all for almost half of a sapping contest on Thursday night until Mahoney showed quick reaction skills to post the game’s only try.
Before Mahoney’s last-ditch effort, the game threatened to become the first tryless encounter since the Bulldogs edged Illawarra 4-2 in 1993.
But Mahoney took full advantage of a Mitchell Moses grubber into the in-goal at Bankwest Stadium that counterpart Lachlan Lewis failed to clean up.
Canterbury had a number of chances to push for an equaliser, but the Eels held on to get their campaign off to a winning start.
The build-up was marred by a week of damaging headlines for the code brought on by an off-field incident resulting in the standing down of two Bulldogs players.
There were also fears the coronavirus would impact attendance, with a crowd of 21,363 turning up for what was hoped to be a sellout.
Despite the dramatic lead-in, the first half fizzled with neither team able to muster any genuine tryscoring opportunities.
Canterbury, the league’s worst attacking team last year, registered the only two line breaks of the match but couldn’t convert either into points.
Parramatta also struggled to maintain pressure, with neither Moses or Dylan Brown able to inject themselves into the contest.
Eels winger Blake Ferguson came close to opening the scoring in the fourth minute, but stepped on the touchline moments before planting the ball.
Instead the game’s first points came via a Brandon Wakeham penalty goal in the 12th minute, which was matched by Moses later in the half.
Both sides also failed to overturn knock-on rulings with captain’s challenges either side of halftime, the first by Reagan Campbell-Gillard, and then Will Hopoate.
Bulldogs lock Adam Elliott had a chance to grab the first try of the match but was denied by some desperate defence from Ryan Matterson and Nathan Brown.
Ferguson could also find himself in trouble with the match review committee after being penalised for tripping in the second half.
