Canberra’s horror start to the NRLW season has continued after they slumped to their third loss in a row at home as the Eels punished some sloppy errors at the back to celebrate Mahalia Murphy’s return from injury with a thumping win.

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Murphy missed the opening two rounds of the season with a hamstring injury but scored a crucial try on the stroke of half-time as Parramatta bounced back from last week’s loss in New Zealand to win 46-12.

The halves had a field day with Cassey Tohi-Hiku setting up two tries while Rachael Pearson had three assists and scored one of her own as Canberra struggled to deal with their high kicks.

The Eels made them pay with a couple of quick tries, including one to Martha Mataele who crashed over for her first try to celebrate her birthday on a day the club posted its highest NRLW score.

The future looks bright for a team brimming with young talent, including rookie prop Tess McWilliams who powered past superstar Simaima Taufa to open the second-half scoring.

Parramatta’s attack will be hard to stop if Zali Fay continues to do special things after the winger flew through the air to reel in a Pearson kick before she offloaded to Owen who grabbed her second try.

CAPITAL CURSE

The Raiders would have been banking on a fast start to the season with their first three games at home, but they are anchored to the bottom of the table and are winless through the opening three rounds.

They have now lost nine-straight games at GIO Stadium, with their last win coming way back in 2023 against the Eels.

The writing was on the wall from the very first set when they dropped the ball, and things didn’t improve as the Green Machine completed just 53 per cent of their sets in the first half.

Their inability to handle kicks is a huge concern with all four of Parramatta’s first-half tries coming on the back of simple errors, including one to Rory Owen who was simply more desperate to attack the loose ball.

SIGNS OF HOPE

Madison Bartlett grabbed a double to become the second player to score 30 NRLW tries, while Raiders fans would have enjoyed what they saw from Elise Simpson who overcame a few tough moments to shine on debut.

The local junior will learn a lot from Saturday’s showing, with Simpson gifting the Eels a couple of tries with dropped balls but also coming up with some big plays in defence.

The fullback set up both of Bartlett’s tries with lovely passes on the left edge, while Simpson also had a huge kick return which led to another try a few plays later.