Three tries in the last 10 minutes saw Wests Tigers beat an injury-hit Parramatta 22-6 in an error-strewn NRL contest at ANZ Stadium.
The Eels, who ended the game with veteran forward David Gower playing in the centres, led 6-4 until the 70th minute when James Tedesco, Pat Richards and Luke Brooks went over to seal the two points for the joint venture.
Richards’ four-pointer was ruled to be an eight-point try when referee Jared Maxwell deemed Will Hopoate guilty of a high tackle during the build-up, with Brooks racing over late in the game to ice the result.
The experienced winger, in his 100th NRL game, ignited his side’s late flourish with some great footwork to keep his feet in touch and kick over the head of Hopoate for Tedesco to score.
Parramatta, who were without Beau Champion, Brad Takairangi, Vai Toutai and Semi Radradra due to injury saw their outside back stocks take another hit when in-form winger Reece Robinson was ruled out before kick-off with a quad strain.
They were compounded further when centre Ryan Morgan was forced out with concussion and Gower was switched wide alongside rookie winger Bureto Farimo.
Nathan Peats gave the hosts the lead on the half-hour mark when he burrowed over from dummy-half with Chris Sandow kicking the extras.
The Eels, who had lost their last six clashes with the Tigers, had a golden opportunity to extend their lead to 8-0 before halftime, but opted against a penalty kick in front of the posts and coughed up the ball when Hopoate lost possession when trying to score in the left corner.
It proved to be a costly misjudgement as the Tigers immediately went down the field and scored on the stroke of halftime through Kevin Naiqama.
The second half was largely abject from both sides with Parramatta lacking spark in attack and completing just 28 of their 40 sets and missing a whopping 46 tackles along with 14 handling errors.
Jason Taylor’s side weren’t much better going 34 from 42 sets but in Richards they had the best player on display and his late, late show was enough to see his side end a run of two successive losses in front of a crowd of 35,510.
