The NSW Cup Panthers suffered a 32-12 loss to the Warriors at Go Media Stadium, Auckland on Saturday.
Undermanned by State of Origin absences, the Panthers put in a gallant performance but were unable to stop the ladder-leading Warriors from scoring a 10th consecutive NSW Cup win.
The Warriors dominated proceedings from the offset, with Edward Kosi’s early double handing the hosts a 10-0 lead. The floodgates threatened to burst open, but a persistent Panthers side refused to give in.
The Panthers limited the damage to only two tries in the first half, and Luke Sommerton rolled up the sleeves to put Penrith on the board in the 33rd minute.
The skipper jumped out of dummy half and muscled his way to a try against the run of play, making it 10-6 at half-time.
An explosive start to the second half saw the Warriors fly out to a 22-6 lead with tries to Geronimo Doyle and Caelys-Paul Putoko.
Once again, the Panthers refused to roll over and returned to life when Jack Cole sent David Fale over in the 55th minute with a terrific cut-out pass.
A 22-12 scoreline heading into the final 20 minutes was encouraging for the Panthers, but the sin-binning of Mavrik Geyer invited the Warriors to kill off the game.
Tanah Boyd’s try in the 65th minute left the Panthers on life support, and Putoko’s second in the 74th minute put the game to bed.
Despite the Panthers brave performance, the Warriors came away 20-point victors.
