Roosters Sent Home To Keep Season Alive

The Panthers put in a relentless first half to defeat the Roosters 30-10, sending a warning to their fellow finals competitors with halfback Nathan Cleary on song in his return from injury. 

Some had questioned if the Panthers weren't quite the same outfit of recent seasons, with some patchy performances in the lead-up to the finals, but they clicked into gear in awesome fashion to set up a match-winning lead by the break.

The Roosters had hardly touched the ball and were behind on the scoreboard 22-0 after 23 minutes of play, with the Panthers going on an early procession to the tryline. 

The Panthers were aided by errors at the back by the Roosters to gift them possession and the first try was just standard Brian To'o, with the winger proving too strong to stop close to the tryline, running hard before slamming the ball down.

The next try to Izack Tago was when you just knew the Panthers were 'on', with a Cleary kick coming off the far right uprights to bounce favorably for the unmarked centre who was on the tryline to cradle the ball in his arms before touching down to score.

Next up, it was Jarome Luai's turn to take advantage of a Cleary try assist, getting a ball out wide before dancing back inside to score.

For Penrith's next try, it was the forwards who showed what they could do, with a powerful run from James Fisher-Harris putting the pieces in motion for Mitch Kenny to get a quick dummyhalf pass out to Luke Garner to crash over. 

The Roosters did show some fight however and had their best chance of scoring on the cusp of halftime after a Connor Watson chargedown, but they could not crack the swarming goal-line defence of the Panthers. 

In his return game from injury, Cleary slotted a penalty goal in the 34th minute, with the home side heading to the break ahead with the scores at 24-0. The Panthers had also had 67 percent of the possession with a completion rate of 21/22, while the Roosters had only completed at 12/15. 

Upon their return from the break, the Roosters showed up with a renewed intent in defence and were soon rewarded on the other side of the ball when a hard-running Joseph-Aukuso Sua'ali'i proved too hard to stop as he targeted the tryline. He was unable to convert his own try from the left sideline, with the ball not quite hooking back in enough, with the scores remaining 24-4.

The Panthers, who had been so clinical in the first half, began giving up penalties in the second and the Roosters capitalised, going back-to-back with skipper James Tedesco the next to score, this time running out to right side, with Sua'ali'i able to swing this conversion attempt over to narrow the scores to 24-10. 

The visitors had managed to settle into their own game and turn the match more into an arm wrestle mid-way through the second half, but they took too many critical hits early for it to make a difference to the result.

However, while everything appeared to go their way in the first half, the Panthers were dealt more of a footy reality in the second, with Moses Leota denied a try after it was deemed Liam Martin had knocked the ball on while contesting a kick.

The Panthers had the final say of the game and scored with just over 10 minutes to play after getting a penalty 20 metres out from their line, putting the Panthers in a prime position to attack and they didn't waste any time, with Cleary threading a kick through for Garner to to chase through for his double. 

The Roosters will play for their finals life next week and will get some reinforcements with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves set to return, while the Panthers will have a week off.