Saints are looking the goods this week. The team is a strong one.
Amos Roberts did enough to make it to the bench and Colin Ward makes a long awaited return to the starting line-up.
There's no doubt that ex-Saint, Brian Smith has plenty of headaches coaching the Eels who have a reasonable defensive record in 2000 but they have the 2nd worse attack record, only 2 points better than Auckland. In a nutshell, they are finding it hard to score tries.
Conversely, the Dragons have no such difficulty in attack but their defensive record is a worry - the 2nd worse in the comp but by a more comfortable 40 points ahead of Auckland.

I read all the stats and for what they're worth, it should be a close - most punters are going for a Parra win.  But RL is not played on a sheet of paper.
- SAINTS BY 24

FULLTIME SCORE: Saints 24  - Parra 30
Match Conditions: Fine & mild, moderate NW to SW wind, 21 degrees
Attendance: 14,135
POST MATCH SUMMARY:
DRAGONS GO DOWN 30-24

46th minute: Parramatta score after throwing the ball around for an eternity in front of the Saints line. Finally Saints crack and the Eels score out wide. Conversion misses. Score: 14 - all
51st minute: Parra's Schifcofske scores off a bomb to Amos Roberts' wing. The momentum begins on the Parra 10m line with a 20 metre (not 30m as Sterling described) cross field pass. This gave Parra the space and the Saints forwards were once again unable to match it in defence. I hear today that Roberts has been criticised for allowing this try but the fact is he should never have been placed in such a position. The try occurred as a result of poor up the middle defence from the Dragons who couldn't react to determined ruck running from the Eels. In some quarters this is considered to be the turning point of the match. However, I believe the turning point comes much later. Schifcofske converts his own try. Score: Saints 14 - Parra 20
55th minute: Parra score again Saints are found to be short on their right flank. Wide conversion is successful. Score: Saints 14 - Parra 26
61st minute: After Parramatta kick out on the full from a line drop out out, Saints take the option of a tap instead the guaranteed 2 points. They are rewarded with a dusty try to Blacklock in his right corner. The conversion from Roberts is way off. Score: Saints 18 - Parra 26
In the next few minutes, Saints throw a few moves together but are thwarted by their own ineptitude and a poor ref decision.
73rd minute: Parra's Moodie scores his 3rd try of the day off a grubber and in the corner. The conversion misses but Parra have 12 point lead in the final minutes and the turning point has arrived.
80th minute: Nathan Blacklock scores a try after the fulltime siren sounds. It is a true consolation try from a team which never gave up but in reality should never had allowed themselves to get stuck in the mire. Tingha converts his own try and its a beauty from out wide and into the sun. The ball hits the left upright and goes in.

REF BILL FINALLY ON TOP OF THAT SLIPPERY SLOPE

Bill Harrigan with eyes wide shut

For some time now, Bill Harrigan has been held aloft by the media, the League and the money men as the best ref the NRL has to offer. Perhaps, this is a sad statement on the overall condition of refereeing standards but it is much more likely that Bill's status is elevated by politics as well as a substantial share of manure grovelling.

In the 60s there was a ref by the name of Darcy Lawler who was given all the top jobs and considered the best ref that the game had. There are a number of players who believed then and still believe to this day that Darcy Lawler favoured certain teams, depending on where his bets were placed. Nowadays, it seems that Darcy's antics are common knowledge...the question is, why was he considered to be the top ref? By all accounts, he had a reputation which was at best dubious and at worse exposing a basic flaw which made him incapable of doing his job. Was it case of the Emperor's new clothes? It seems that people just didn't want to see what was going on because it was far too difficult to comprehend. The innuendo must have been rife then, just as it is now.

Offcourse, this is 2000 and I wouldn't suggest for a moment that Bill has a vested interest in the result of any match. But I am willing to suggest that he has an ego the size of Sydney Harbour and in many ways that is a far more dangerous thing.

When Bill first came on the scene, he was raised up to represent the 'new age' of refereeing. The first team to question him was St George who said they had a problem with Bill and it was documented in the mid 90s that the club and the ref had a meeting 'to sort out their differences'.
Bill copped heaps of flack after Saints' loss in the 1999 grand final. The match saw countless bad ref calls go against the Dragons in the final 20 minutes. For some reason, he got the job to ref the round 5 match also against Melb when Saints were awful beyond description but still copped a raw deal from the ref when it came to bad calls.

He copped plenty of criticism after the State of Origin & he displayed egotistical contempt for his critics in his media responses. His back was up coming into the round 15 match. It goes without saying that he put in a terrible performance once again in the Parra v Saints match. 
He was unable to keep the teams back the 10, he missed forward passes galore and pulled up plays depending on his mood. It almost looked as if everytime he missed a forward pass or a knock on that he would try to make up for it by calling the next flat pass forward.

I know this sounds stupid and I'm sure that things were not planned it such a way. However, I look at ref Bill and his style of match work and I am stunned beyond belief as to how anyone could consider him to be anything other than a lower grade touch judge.

Nevertheless, it appears that Bills' reign is drawing to a close. He has upset the Queenslanders who expect a pay back in State of Origin II. Regardless of how he conducts himself for the rest of the year, it does appear that Bill has found the top of that slippery slope into inevitable retirement.

I wonder if in 30 years from now, when the threat of legal action has passed by, will future ex-players talk about ref Bill with the same derision that is exhibited by some current ex-players when the name Darcy Lawler is mentioned.

Blatant errors:
Apart from putting up with Peter Sterling's 'Parra report' for most of the match, we also had to witness the ref and his sidekicks making the following baffling decisions...
5 min: Ridiculous petty penalty against Timmins for having hand on the ball. This sort of ruling only serves to give notice to the players that the ref will decide the proceedings and not the players who just want to play and not the fans who just want to watch. The ref does not not give another penalty of this sort for the rest of the match despite it happening many more times. Inconsistent. Penalty favours Parra
12 min: Nathan Blacklock held back when chasing kick into Parra in goal. No penalty or penalty try. Parra caught in goal and line drop out. Error favours Parra
16 min: Leikvoll strips ball and ref gives possession to Saints 10 m out from their own line. Error favours Saints
22 min: Ref incorrectly rules knock on against Saints. From broken play, Blacklock gets the ball and runs towards the tryline. The Parra defence is shot to bits and Saints seem ceratin to score but the ref calls them back 30 metres to rule a Parra scrum feed. Error favours Parra
24 min: Robbie Simpson makes a break up the middle and is tackled 15 m out. He tries to play the play but the Parra defender knocks the ball out of his grasp. The ref says play on but it should have been a penalty and a sin binning for the the Parra player who successfully slowed down the charge. Parra are given the chance to re-group and Saints are held out. In the next set, Parra score. Ref indecision favours Parra
30 min: Parra player tackling Saints player knocks ball into touch but was not playing at it. Saints get the feed and another set, they score 1 minute later. Error favours Saints

43 min: Colin Ward runs hard onto a Nathan Brown pass and although the ball clearly goes back, the ref reacts to the crowd and calls it forward. The pass at worse a good one, it goes back and cannot even be described as a 'flat pass' - Parra score in next set. Error favours Parra
54 min: Saints players are rolling off the tackled player, the Parra player, falls and feigns being pushed down. The ref penalises Saints after reacting to crowd. Parra score in next set of six. Penalty favours Parra
(Penalty count in 54th min is Parra 4 - Saints 1)
69 min: Ref awards penalty to Parra player Hindmarsh who while trying to pass ball in tackle simply loses it. Ref rules that Ward has a hand in it. Penalty favours Parra
75 min: Parra pack down with one too many in the scrum. Saints get the ball and have an overlap 20m out from Parra line - the ref does not give penalty nor does he allow play to continue. Instead, he stops play and re orders a scrum. By now, Saints had the ball well into the backline within open space clearly beckoning - Saints lose the ball in the re-start. Error favours Parra
79 min: Parra denied charge down in the dying moments of the match. Saints get ball and score after the fulltime siren when it should been have a Parra try. Error favours Saints