Eels slither in by 1 point

The Avatiu Eels managed to slither their way to a win against the Panthers on Saturday with a cheeky drop kick by veteran Eels Terry Piri the deciding factor in the Eels 25-24 win.

With the wind on their backs, the Eels came out firing early in the game scoring a try in the first set.The try came via the hulking Bilsy Gukisuva who crashed through a weak Panthers defence to score the first try under the goal posts.

In fact it was all Eels action in the first half of the game with team creative director Bobby Hansen working his magic to exploit weak Panthers defence to score the Eels second try.

Terii Aberahama was the next to score a try for the Eels dotting down on the goal post pads and taking the Eels lead to 18-0.

When the Panthers looked like they were angling for a try 10 metres from their try line, a misjudged Panthers pass was intercepted by a young Avatiu winger who sprinted to the Eels 10-metre line before being brought down by Panthers speedster Conrad Piri.

The Eels were quick to rally in support to spread the ball out wide where Hansen was in prime position to slip through scrambling Panthers to score his second try of the game and give the Eels a 24-0 at the half time break.

Back in the second half and with the wind now gusting in their favour, the Panthers began to rack up the points with a team effort try before the Panthers workhorse Teina Savage struck in the corner to put the Panthers back in the game 24-10.

With Bilsy Gukisuva sent off for a high tackle, the Eels were feeling the Panthers pressure when veteran Terry Piri decided to drop-kick the ball over the goal to take the Eels lead to 25-10.

Turori Matutu worked up some magic for his side to score a try and pull back the Eels lead 25-14.

Matutu again took advantage of the slack Eels defence with a breakaway run before firing the ball to Conrad Piri to score and claw back the Eels lead to 25-20 and giving the Panthers hope to win the match.

As light deteriorated and winds howled, a try did come for the Panthers from what was outstanding desperate play from the side and with ball in hand Lui Moemai was always going to be hard to stop as he crashed through the tiring Eels to score the try.

But with the conversion missed the Panthers were a point away from levelling the game with the Eels 25-24.

However, time ran out for the resurgent Panthers much to the relief of the Eels who were glad to escape the Panther claws.

In other premier grade matches at the weekend the Bulldogs proved too strong for the Sharks 22-17 while the Sea Eagles thrashed the Warriors 32-18.