The Eels and Rabbitohs have played out a controversial 16-16 draw which appeared to end early. At Campbelltown, a disgruntled fan tackled referee Jared Maxwell after the Broncos beat the Wests Tigers 20-18 / The Daily Telegraph

The draw consolidates Souths top eight spot, but the game ended in controversy when referee Brett Suttor called time as Souths tried to feed a scrum with seconds on the clock.

Suttor had called time off with nine seconds remaining but restarted the clock with Rabbitohs halfback Craig Wing too far away from the scrum to feed the ball before the hooter sounded.

Defeat would have been harsh on an injury-hit Parramatta however, after the Eels dominated the second half and the extra period.

But the visitors were left ruing an off-day from Luke Burt who missed two conversion attempts, and a dolly of a field goal three minutes from the end of golden point.

The Eels played superbly with man-of-the-match Jarryd Hayne in particularly magnificent form to all-but rubber stamp his place in the NSW Origin squad to be announced on Monday.

Hayne scored two tries, set up a third and almost won the game for his side with a field goal that bounced off the crossbar.

First-half tries from Michael Crocker and Nathan Merritt had given Souths a 10-0 advantage within the first 15 minutes.

Queensland Origin hopeful Crocker reacted quickest to a spiralling Wing kick that had been knocked backwards by Fetuli Talanoa after just two minutes before Merritt intercepted a Hayne pass to score despite the best efforts of the Eels fullback, Hayne nearly running the Souths winger down on the line.

But the Eels custodian made up for his error on 26 minutes when he burrowed over from close range after Luke Capewell was penalised for a knock-on just in front of his own goal line.

The Eels came flying out of the blocks after the break with Eric Gothe rolling over just after the restart after brilliant work from Hayne, but the Eels' joy was short lived when Capewell extended Souths' lead after he weaved his way past a flat-footed Nathan Hindmarsh to score after 51 minutes.

Craig Wing's kick made the score 16-8 but any hopes Souths had of lying down were scuppered when Hayne barged past five Souths players to score which Burt converted before slotting a penalty to tie the scores.

The Rabbitohs were feeding a scrum 10m out  from the Parramatta line with nine seconds left on the clock at the end of the second period of golden-point extra time when referee Brett Suttor blew full time.