Sportingbet Stadium
Saturday, June 14
Kick-off: 3.10pm
Referee: Adam Cassidy
Broadcast: Radio Coverage courtesy of Hawkesbury Radio 89.9FM (Link available via www.hawkesburyradio.com.au)
TEAMS
PANTHERS – 1. Kieran MOSS 2. Eto NABULI 3. Waqa BLAKE 4. Wes NAIQAMA 5. Kevin NAIQAMA 6. Will SMITH 7. Tom HUMBLE 8. Sam ANDERSON 9. Kevin KINGSTON 10. Tim GRANT 11. Ben MURDOCH-MASILA 12. Matt ROBINSON 13. Ryan SIMPKINS
INTERCHANGE: 14. Vaipuna TIA KILIFI 16. Shaun SPENCE 17. Reagan CAMPBELL-GILLARD 18. Liam AYOUB 22. Anthony CHERRINGTON
COACH: Garth BRENNAN
CUTTERS – 1. Jason RAPER 2. Kiti GLYMIN 3. Geoff DANIELA 4. Nathan GREEN 5. Tyron CRANSTON 6. Sam DUGGAN 7. Kyle EATHER 8. Matt GROAT 9. Joel JOHNSON 10. Rory O'BRIEN 11. Willie MATAKA 12. Junior TIA-KILIFI 13. Shannon WAKEMAN
INTERCHANGE: 15. Josh AILAOMAI 16. Chris LEWIS 17. Charlie FAINGAA 22. Dylan STRICKLAND
COACH: Scott LOGAN
It’s been just two weeks since these two sides met, with the Panthers coming away with a 19-18 win down at Figtree that weekend. It was a very tense game and no doubt the St George Illawarra boys will be keen to even the score on Saturday.
Last weekend Penrith had a scrappy win over Wyong and had it not been for several mistakes by the Roos at crucial moments, the result could have been very different. Coach Garth Brennan wasn’t overly impressed with our defensive game and believes our boys still have a big problem with discipline and focus.
Despite that, the win means Penrith has now tasted victory for the last seven weeks and are comfortably sitting on top of the NSW Cup ladder.
The Cutters posted a 1 point win over the Sharks last week and now move into 5th position. They were slow to start the match and were down 22-4 at half time, before throwing out a very strong second half, keeping the opposition scoreless for the entire 40m while putting 19 points on the board themselves.
Most of the credit should go to their forward pack that were extremely fierce in the second half and decimated any chance Cronulla had of getting close to their line.
There’s been a couple of changes to the Panthers line up this week, with Kevin Kingston returning from injury to start at hooker, and Waqa Blake moving up from Under 20’s to help out in the centres, filling the gap left by Dallin Watene-Zelezniak who’s playing grade this week.
Penrith will have to be smart with their ball play on Saturday, making sure they spread themselves wide to use our speedy wingers to get over the line. Our attack will also have to be perfect if we travel up the middle of the field, because the Cutters will take no prisoners there. Defence is where this game will be won, and as we saw last week, St George Illawarra can and will play for the full 80 minutes.
