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A late field goal from halfback Jackson Hastings has given Wests Tigers their first win of the NRL season, 21-20 over Parramatta at CommBank Stadium.
Jackson Hastings was the hero for the Wests Tigers against Parramatta, kicking a match-winning field goal in the final seconds to snatch a 21-20 win.
Hastings was part of a new-look spine fielded by besieged coach Michael Maguire and had a hand in everything the Tigers did right, on his return from suspension.
With the game locked up at 20-20 with less than 30 seconds to go, the Great Britain international banged a field goal over from 38 metres to claim an upset win for the Tigers in front of 28,336 fans at CommBank Stadium.
Hastings was deployed at halfback with Luke Brooks shifted to five-eighth, in a move which yielded positive results.
Rather than it simply being a cosmetic change, Brooks played with greater freedom and set up two tries before shifting to hooker when Jake Simpkin was injured late in the clash.
"It's pretty special," Maguire said of the pressure-relieving win. "I'm really pleased for my players.
"I've got a committed group here and the last month with results things haven't gone our way.
"We had a bit of a tinker with the team and Jacko adds to what Brooksy is doing.
"Our leaders throughout the week have been very strong, so I'm very pleased."
The victory was the Tigers' first this season and first over the Eels since 2018.
They raced into the lead with Luciano Leilua and a David Nofoaluma brace giving them a 14-10 advantage at the break, with Clint Gutherson and Isaiah Papali'i touching down to haul the Eels back into the contest.
Brooks and Hastings were involved in the build-up to all three of the Tigers' first-half tries.
Neither side was able to gain the ascendancy in the second half until Reed Mahoney's miscued 40-20 allowed Ken Maumalo to power over for the Tigers.
Maumalo was later taken off with a knee injury.
Mahoney and Marata Niukore both crossed for the Eels to tie the game up with 10 minutes left, with Mitchell Moses missing a conversion attempt that would have put his side ahead.
The Eels No.7 missed a shot at a field goal in the dying minutes before Hastings nailed an attempt with time almost up to seal victory and send the small legion of Tigers supporters into raptures.
"Our concentration around the detail of the game wasn't good enough ... ," said Eels coach Brad Arthur, who lost the services of Tom Opacic and Reagan Campbell-Gillard in the second-half due to injury.
"We lacked a fair bit of patience, we made a few breaks and were trying to score off every play.
"The games in which we play our best footy are the games where we build and are patient."
