The traditional Easter Monday clash between Parramatta and the Wests Tigers is not as straight-up as many in the past with the Tigers coming off a very impressive win.
Best Bet
It is stunning to see Parramatta so heavily favoured with Mitchell Moses sidelined. The Eels No.7 is the conductor of the Eels attack and there is just no chance they play with the same slickness and speed without him there. He is out 12 weeks and stunningly, rookie Blaize Talagi has been tapped as his replacement.
There was plenty to like about the Tigers last week too. Benji Marshall was quick to make changes, always a good sign, and he put together a great game plan that had the forwards make a ton of offloads. That same plan will work against the big Eels pack too.
The Tigers have covered six of eight at CommBank and are good as a big underdog in Sydney, covering 14 of 24 getting 6.5 or more.
The Eels have covered just 12 of 32 off a win and 9 of 22 when favoured by 6.5 or more and without Moses look like a team to be taken on.
Same Game Multi
Maika Sivo is an elite tryscorer with 87 in 104 games including eight in eight games against the Tigers.
Justin Olam looked outstanding on his Tigers debut and can take advantage of defensive liability Will Penisini.
Value Bet
Papalii was completely wasted last year but returned to a role – and an energy – we saw when he played for the Eels and it led to a try last week. He is a hard-running forward and will spend the day running at Morgan Harper so his chances have to be fancied.
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