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Debutant Watene-Zelezniak stars in Panthers win

Roar Rookie
5th April, 2014
1

A stunning NRL debut by 18-year-old winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak has lifted Penrith to a rain-soaked 12-6 NRL win over Canberra at SportingBet Stadium.

The highly-rated Panthers junior has played both NYC and NSW Cup this season and coach Ivan Cleary said his two-try effort in the Saturday night victory was a credit to the club’s development system.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in our development system here and Dallin is one of our bright lights in that department,” Cleary said.

“He has come through the grades here and has been playing well.”

Watene-Zelezniak said he was surprised by his call up during the week.

“I didn’t expect it at this age. When Ivan told me on Tuesday, it was April Fool’s Day and I asked him if he was April Fooling me,” Watene-Zelezniak laughed.

“He said `no’. I couldn’t believe it, the whole week I was smiling.

“When I ran out and saw the crowd, that was when the nerves kicked in.

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“I was checking the weather all week and was hoping it would be dry … and then I didn’t have my metal studs on, so I was scared I was going to slip over.”

In an ordinary match played in terrible weather, Cleary was relieved to secure two competition points thanks largely to kickers Jamie Soward and Peter Wallace.

It was a crossfield effort from Wallace that led to Watene-Zelezniak grabbing the match-winner.

“It was one of those messy games that you want to make sure you get the win,” Cleary said.

“You can’t win those games unless you kick well. For big chunks of the second half, we were bringing the ball up off our own line.”

The Panthers took an 8-0 lead into halftime through tries to Watene-Zelezniak and Josh Mansour.

Both teams struggled to control the ball due to the wet, leaving the game in the balance until after the full-time siren in front of a crowd of 7667.

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The Raiders threw plenty at Penrith inside the final two minutes but the Panthers defence held firm.

Canberra’s only points came from a Paul Vaughan try in the 54th minute converted by Jarrod Crocker.

The game was stopped in the first half when Raiders forward Joel Edwards was knocked out trying to tackle Watene-Zelezniak.

He was stretchered off but later cleared of serious injury.

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