The Penrith Panthers bounced back in style to put 50 on a struggling Raiders side at GIO Stadium on Friday night.
Result
Penrith Panthers 53
Tries: Sunia Turuva 6th, 24th; Izack Tago 43rd, 49th; Nathan Cleary 52nd; Zac Hosking 60th; Tyrone Peachey 71st; Stephen Crichton 74th; Jaeman Salmon 79th
Goals: Nathan Cleary 7th, 26th, 44th, 53rd, 61st, 72nd, 76th, 80th
Field Goal: Nathan Cleary 39th
Canberra Raiders 12
Tries: Elliott Whitehead 30th; Hudson Young 56th
Goals: Jamal Fogarty 32nd, 58th
Report
A bit of heat was present for this match, with both teams coming off Round 4 losses and neither willing to let the game get away from them in the opening stint.
With a first-half sin bin, all in scuffle and a classic Nathan Cleary field goal on the stroke of half time, this game had it all in only the first 40 minutes.
A first half double from young-gun Sunia Turuva from a pinpoint Cleary kick and one of his own saw the Panthers take an early lead, before Elliott Whitehead hit back for the home side and kept them within a converted try difference.
It wasn’t long after that Cleary took it upon himself to extend Penrith’s lead with a one-pointer just before heading into the sheds for the break, a feat so routine for the superstar halfback that none of his teammates saw the need to celebrate it.
It wasn’t all perfect for the defending premiers, however, with Stephen Crichton sent to the Sin Bin after repeated infringements and a warning from referee Adam Gee.
Despite their resolve in the first half, it was one way traffic for the majority of the second half, with the Panthers’ scoring three tries in just nine minutes with a double from Izack Tago and a contribution from Cleary himself, eventually wiping the Raiders off the park.
Canberra gave themselves a slight chance of a comeback with a four-pointer from Hudson Young with 25 minutes left to play, but the visitors had their foot on the accelerator and shut down this opportunity before it got a chance to truly begin, piling on another four tries from Zac Hosking, Tyrone Peachey, Stephen Crichton and hitting the magical number 50 on the scoreboard just before the fulltime buzzer sounded with a resounding try from Jaeman Salmon.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR POINTS
Embed from Getty Images3 – Nathan Cleary (Panthers)
2 – Izack Tago (Panthers)
1 – Sunia Turuva(Team)
