Hayne back in touch

This time coach Daniel Anderson came to praise Jarryd Hayne - not bury him - after the brilliant Parramatta fullback produced a performance under fire to spearhead the Eels' 36-24 win over North Queensland on Monday night.

The NSW Origin star scored three tries as Parramatta kept its season on life support with an at times shaky six-tries-to-four win over the hapless Cowboys.

Anderson singled Hayne out for criticism the last time the match-winning No.1 trudged off Parramatta Stadium - the Round 16 loss to Brisbane - in a move which sparked wild speculation the superstar wanted out of the club.

But after putting those rumours to rest and producing the goods for the Blues in Origin III, Hayne turned it on for the Eels when they needed it most.

"He was great. As a team we committed to each other and Jarryd made some special efforts," Anderson said.

"It makes the job easier for our halves when he's in that really aggressive mood."

"Jarryd was immersed in the team all week. He was very vocal during training and he played superbly."

Skipper Nathan Cayless said of Hayne's impact: "Some of the things he did tonight really gave us a lot of confidence."

"We need to build on that confidence."

North Queensland coach Neil Henry lamented his team's inability to contain Hayne, especially late in the second half when he pushed away from several defenders to score his third try.

"He's a difference. It was like he was running with spiders off him," Henry said.

"He got the ball off the play-the-ball and goes through four defenders to score – it's not like he's worked for that too hard."

The win - the first in a month - lifts Parramatta to 10th, two points outside the top eight.

But Anderson cautioned against predicting a full-blown revival.

"We've had some tough times and it's good to see the boys smile," he said.

"We've got a lot of boys who would have derived a lot of benefit from tonight."

"But it's only a small step forward. It's a win - we haven't won for a while - so a big step forward is putting in two very good (performances)."

North Queensland is languishing in 15th and will be playing for pride for the rest of the season.

The Cowboys started well enough against the Eels but three tries in quick succession late in the first half killed off their hopes.

"That's not NRL standard, that seven minutes," Anderson declared.

"Those three tries going back-to-back off kick offs, that's not acceptable."

"There is no doubt we can score some points but you can't have defensive lapses like that."

"We need to be better defensively. We're not playing with a lot of confidence."