Power Rankings at the Quarter Mark of the Season

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Their time may finally have arrived, although captain Corey Norman was quick to point out it won’t mean a whole lot when they open their premiership campaign against Brisbane at Pirtek Stadium on March 3.Regardless, the Eels will carry some momentum into the year, although whether they retain it will hinge to a large extent on the outcome of their stoush with the NRL over governance issues.

The threat of a four-point penalty still hangs over the club. Yesterday, scoring points was their only concern as they piled four tries on the New Zealand War­riors in the final at Eden Park.

“Hopefully this builds a little bit of belief,” coach Brad Arthur said after leading his side to their first title since the 2003 World Sevens.“We wanted to work really hard for each other in defence. I think we got through to the grand final being one of the better defending teams. We won the game on the back of our defence.

“It’s important. We came here and we wanted to be a team that strives to compete at everything we do. We just need to now go back and relax and get ready for a big year.”

Asked about the significance of the win, Norman said: “We won it and like Brad said it’s a bit of confidence. It really doesn’t mean anything when it comes to round one.”Norman was named player of the tournament and young centre Bevan French scored the opening try of the final, his eighth of the tournament. The Eels are clearly in good shape — despite his heroics, Arthur indicated French was fighting an uphill battle to be in the side when the premiership begins.

“We have some boys there that have been training in the backline for round one and Bevan is not part of that,” he said.“He is only young and he has a lot to learn. He was pretty fortunate he was on the end of some pretty slick passing.”

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