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Penrith prevail in yet another thriller

(AAP Image/Action Photographics, Robb Cox)
Roar Guru
1st May, 2016
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Penrith held on to defeat Canberra in controversial circumstances 19-18 at Carrington Park to enter the top eight and maintain their topsy-turvy 2016 form-line which reads win-loss since Round 3.

Having led 18-6 with less than fifteen minutes remaining, the Panthers withstood a fierce Canberra comeback before Peter Wallace’s 78th-minute field goal broke the deadlock.

Wallace’s one-pointer was awarded in amid controversy after the Bunker was asked to see whether Canberra prop Paul Vaughan was impeded from reaching the kicker by two Penrith players.

A furious Ricky Stuart after the game declared Wallace’s field goal was incorrectly awarded by the Bunker, stating that the new rules are clear concerning blockers in such situations.

“We had a player who was impeded by two blockers,” Stuart said.

“The new rule in place is where you’re not allowed to have blockers to impede a player that’s chasing down the kicker of the field goal.

“We were impeded by a wall of players.

“That’s the rule that you’re not allowed to do any more.

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“[They will have] three or four days to try and create a reason why this wasn’t a wall because it was two blokes standing in the road impeding players where apparently it’s allowed now.

“So if I do that next week to a field goal am I allowed to? No you’re not.

We prepared all week to play these guys in the last ten minutes of the match.”

We knew the match would come down to the last ten.”

That’s what makes you frustrated, that we prepared for what we actually got into and yet we should have kicked our field goal, I agree with that but theirs wasn’t a field goal.”

Stuart was equally adamant James Segeyaro was offside when he blocked Aiden Sezer’s last-ditch field goal attempt, refusing to accept the excuse that such plays have become part of the game’s fabric, instead lamenting that referees are “petrified” to make such courageous calls.

“I didn’t see him onside. I saw him offside,” Stuart said.

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“It might be in the game but there’s rules. If you’re offside you’re offside.”

They are really pushing them into a corner the poor referees I feel sorry for them because they are that nervous and that petrified of making a decision the poor buggers that they don’t.

“The referees should have just actually went and ruled on what they’d seen instead of up to the bloke up here.

“The game needs to do something about it where we are not walking in here and talking about this again.”

Stuart was also critical that the Bunker did not overturn on-field no try decisions against Josh Papalii (61st minute) and Edrick Lee (64th and 72nd minute), taking particularly umbrage at the Edrick Lee double movement decision even after skipper, Jarrod Croker had asked the referee to but to no avail.

“It’s like the three or four times we went over the line today and all of a sudden the Bunker found a way to rule that they weren’t tries,” Stuart said.

“Why don’t we show those double movements at normal speed?

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“You can breakdown anything at slow motion and I can talk you into whatever I want to make sure you know what I think it is.”

For Penrith, Bryce Cartwright, particularly in the first half, showed he is ready to play representative football this year, be it for City or NSW, with a strong performance against Australian back-rower Josh Papalii, including a first try-saver on the rampaging Raider. And Penrith skipper Matt Moylan believes Cartwright is ready for the step up.

“I don’t think he would look out of place,” Moylan said.

“He was up against one of the quality back-rowers in the game and it was a good test for him.

“He doing a good job for us and if it happens for him we’ll be rapt.”

Cartwright ran for 190 metres, including 80 metres to score a runaway try, put on a try for Tyrone Peachey, made two offloads, provided two line-break assists and made 29 tackles for good measure.

Cartwright’s try came against the run of play as Canberra were on the attack deep inside Penrith’s half, until James Fisher-Harris’ pressure on Blake Austin saw the former Panther miss his attempt to kick the ball, which saw Cartwright run away to score after seven minutes.

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But Canberra levelled the scores on 15 minutes when some repeat sets saw the Raiders attack Penrith’s left edge through Joey Leilua, whose magical offload enabled an unmarked Jordan Rapana to score in the right corner.

Penrith regained the lead after 25 minutes after a plethora of penalties inside Canberra’s half allowed Cartwright to provide an inside pass to Peachey to score despite the attention of four defenders.

But for all Penrith’s territorial dominance, they only led 12-6 at halftime, courtesy of a 36th minute Jamie Soward penalty goal, due mostly to the Panthers’ impatience when attacking the Raiders line.

A hip injury early in the second half ruled Fisher-Harris out of the game but it failed to dampen Penrith’s spirits as they opened up the biggest lead of the game. Peter Hiku scored his fifth try of the season from a deft Moylan kick to put the Panthers up 18-6 after 54 minutes.

But if Penrith dominated the opening 60 minutes, their opposition dominated the last twenty to eventually level the scores. The Panthers again were unable to close out the game as their errors accumulated, a point not lost on their coach, Anthony Griffin.

“We were very poor with the ball in the second half,” Griffin said.

“If you hand the opposition the ball in every set after three tackles, you’re going to have some points against you and that’s what happened today.”

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Canberra’s comeback was kick-started in the 69th minute after Kurt Baptiste’s short pass from dummy half allowed Vaughan to score his fifth try against the Panthers, before the Raiders set up a thrilling finish with five minutes remaining when Rapana scored his second try by taking an Austin cross-field kick from Hiku’s grasp.

Both sides missed opportunities to seal a one-point win before Clay Priest’s error gave the Panthers one last chance, which Wallace duly took with both hands with his 30-metre effort edging Penrith in front 19-18.

Despite Stuart’s insistence that Vaughan was impeded from reaching the kicker, Griffin felt the Bunker’s decision to allow the field goal was correct, adding he was always confident Wallace would nail his attempt.

“I didn’t think there was much in it,” Griffin said.

“He’s kicked a lot of field goals in his time Pete so when I saw it going back to him I thought he would kick it.

“We always felt like we were going to win the game but I was more disappointed on why we got ourselves in that position.

“We tried to kill ourselves for the last twenty minutes.

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“Lucky enough we swung that (momentum) at the end and got that field goal.

“We had a lot of defence in us otherwise we would have got beat today.”

Penrith 19 (B Cartwright, T Peachey, P Hiku tries; J Soward 3 from 4 goals; P Wallace field goal) defeated Canberra 18 (J Rapana 2, P Vaughan tries; J Croker 3 from 3 goals) at Carrington Park, Bathurst. Halftime: Penrith 12-6. Crowd: 6,721. Injuries: James Fisher-Harris (hip).

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