The Panthers have put in a gutsy second half performance and have managed to keep the Titans scoreless for a full 80 minutes, in a well-deserved 40-0 win in Bathurst.
In front of a vocal and excited crowd at Carrington Park, Penrith were brilliant in defence and made the most of every opportunity to put on a first class show for the locals, and notch up their second win of the season.
The Titans came out firing early and almost had their first try 5 minutes into the match when Anthony Don barged his way past our defenders and dived over near the corner post. The ref went upstairs to the video ref who ruled that Don was offside when the kick went up, so it was play on for the Panthers.
It was de je vous for the Gold Coast at the 10 minute mark when William Zillman broke through our backline with ease and sidestepped a few defenders before diving over to score, but the video ref ruled no try and finding he’d caught the ball on the inside of the lead runner, which isn’t allowed.
The Panthers had the same bad luck when they got up and over their line in the 18th minute after Peter Wallace threw a beautiful cut out pass to Dean Whare who flicked the ball to Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, and he ran over to touch the ball down. But the video ref picked up that one of our defenders had obstructed a Titans player, so it was ruled no try.
We made the next opportunity count though and in the 20th minute we had our first try of the game! It came when James Segeyaro sent the ball left to Jamie Soward, who passed to Matt Moylan, who quickly flicked it to Jamal Idris, and he palmed off one defender and stepped over another to get the ball down over the line. Soward’s kick was waved away, so Penrith took a 4-0 lead.
We backed that up with a spectacular try from Dean Whare in the 27th minute! After a very messy set of six, Wallace put a grubber kick in from the centre of the field to the right when DWZ leapt into the air and challenged a Gold Coast defender for the ball. It bounced lose and Whare was waiting to pick it up and dive over just inside the corner post. Soward’s kick was a little wide, so the Panthers extended their lead to 8-0.
In the final minute of the half, Lewis Brown almost put another four points on the board for us after collecting the ball from dummy half and trying to burrow his way under a bunch of Titans defenders, but he was held up over the line.
HALF TIME: 8-0 Panthers
The Panthers opened the scoring 7 minutes into this half with try number two to Jamal Idris! After winning a penalty on our 10m line we sent the ball out wide to the left where big Jama was waiting, and he barged his way through a pack of Gold Coast players to stretch his arm out and get the ball down over the line. Matt Moylan took the kick this time and sent the ball straight through the uprights, taking the score to 14-0.
Idris scored his hat trick 5 minutes later after being handed the ball 10m out from our line before running straight at the Titans defence, who tackled him, but not before he slid just far enough to get his elbow – and the ball – over the line! Moylan’s kick was waved away, so we extended our lead to 18-0.
Our next try came courtesy of a brilliant line break by Dean Whare, who was handed the ball by Moylan 30m out from our line, and without any hesitation he ran straight through the Titans defence and sprinted to the line to score. Moylan added the extra two to take the score to 24-0, with 16 minutes remaining.
George Jennings was next to put points on the board, scoring his second NRL try in just his second first grade showing, after some nice ball work from our boys. It started with a well-timed pass from Soward to Idris, who flicked the ball inside to Moylan, who passed to Jennings, and he dived over a Titans defender to get the ball down just inside the corner post. Moylan’s kick took our lead to 30-0.
A couple of minutes later, Sika Manu scored his first try of the year after finding a hole in the Gold Coast’s backline and running straight through and over the line! Moylan made the easy conversion, and blew our lead out to 36-0.
With less than 2 minutes remaining in the game, Bryce Cartwright put the final nail in the coffin after collecting a very creative around-the-back flick pass from Idris, before side-stepping a defender and diving over the line just inside the corner post! Moylan narrowly missed the tricky sideline conversion, but it didn’t matter – the Panthers had the win!
FULL TIME: 40-0 Panthers
