‘He’ll never do it again’: Moses’ all-time sprays at Eels recruit after ‘worst 5 mins in history’

It was a tense finish at CommBank Stadium on Sunday night as Eels skipper Mitch Moses was captured going scorched earth on new recruit Tallyn Da Silva three times in the final 10 minutes.

Da Silva, who weeks ago joined the Eels on a four-and-a-half year deal, was in Moses’ firing line repeatedly during crunch time of the 19-18 victory.

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On several occasions, Da Silva was slow to pass from dummy half or made the wrong play, which resulted in a handful of Parramatta turnovers.

Da Silva copped Moses’ wrath twice in the 78th minute when Parra led 19-18. The first of those sprays came when a Da Silva pass hit the turf and was almost recovered by the Cowboys, but luckily Eels forward Kelma Tuilagi dived on it.

Then 40 seconds later, another Da Silva pass went awry when he probed out of dummy half instead of passing it to Moses off the ground, gifting possession to the Cowboys.

Moses was asked about it post-game, but shrugged it off.

“It happens on the field. It’s a tense game,” the Eels captain said on Fox League.

Speaking on his SEN radio show on Monday morning, Fox League commentator Andrew Voss was in shock at what unfolded — both for how poor Da Silva was and Moses’ subsequent blow up.

“Poor old Tallyn possibly played the worst five or six minutes of a dummy half in the history of the game and I’m not saying that flippantly, I’m saying that honestly,” Voss said.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a dummy half make so many mistakes and errors in judgement in such a short period of time.

“The on field berating from Mitch Moses, now that’s happened before, but it happened three times in five minutes. How do you come back from that?

“Mitchell Moses lost his you know what and I can understand it and I can imagine Parramatta fans losing it.”

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Voss’ radio co-host Greg Alexander said he hadn’t seen an on-field spray directed at a teammate like that in some time, but didn’t fault Moses for his actions.

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve saw a player berated like Da Silva was,” Alexander said.

“I don’t think we’ve seen it happen plenty of times recently. That part of the game died out.

“He probably deserved it but it was tough.”

Tallyn Da Silva and Mitch Moses. Source: FOX SPORTS

Rugby league legend and Blues coach Laurie Daley also weighed in on the unique scenes.

Daley, who coached Moses at Origin level this season, believes the good teams are able to handle some on-field criticism, going onto say it’s a good lesson for the young rising star.

“That’s obviously frustration and passion coming out from Moses. As a No.7 and one of the best in the game, you want the ball in your hands in the big moments and he would’ve made that quite clear to Tallyn,” Daley said on the Big Sports Breakfast.

“He (Da Silva) was picking the ball up and then making the decision. So everything was a bit slow. So while they got away with it yesterday, I think it’s a good learning curve for young number nine, because I think he’s a really good player.

“You know, the fact that in a good football side, you’re able to cop sprays because the best football sides that I’ve been in, out on the field and behind closed doors, when you have your team meetings, everything’s very open and honest.

“And you’ve got to be able to put that aside. If you’ve done something wrong, accept it and use it moving forward as a learning. And I reckon that is his best learning, because he’ll never do that again, Tallyn Da Silva, I’ll guarantee you.”

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