The Penrith Panthers have held off a late comeback by the Rabbitohs to make their way back into the top eight with a win at home on Friday night.
South Sydney were the first to strike, doing so after ten minutes when Kyle Turner charged over the line.
The visitors weren’t in front for long though as Nathan Cleary created an overlap just five minutes later, passing to Matt Moylan who provided a cut-out ball for Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to level proceedings.
The Rabbitohs hit back with Cody Walker taking a penalty goal before Penrith took the lead for the first time in the match after 31 minutes, with Bryce Cartwright offloading to the unmarked Josh Mansour. It gave the chocolate soldiers a 10-8 lead at the break.
It wasn’t long until a try came in the second half as Greg Inglis waltzed over having beaten a poor Panthers defensive line.
The Panthers then rallied with a massive effort after Leilani Latu stormed over to score under the posts, Nathan Cleary following up just three minutes later after Bryce Cartwright put him over on the inside.
Cartwright got another try assist to his name, helping Chris Grevsmuhl to score against his old team who immediately hit back through Sam Burgess, scoring off a John Sutton grubber.
With just minutes to spare, Souths were desperate to score and stay in the game as Burgess scored his second after Cody Walker broke the line.
Walker attempted to come up with a hail Mary after the siren but it was too late for the cardinal and myrtle as they went down by two points at the foot of the mountains.
Bryce Cartwright came up with three try assists for the home side starring alongside Nathan Cleary, Matt Moylan and Josh Mansour.
Leilani Latu and Trent Merrin led the way down the middle of the park for the Panthers with Sam Burgess punching out big metres for Souths alongside his brother Tom, John Sutton and Nathan Brown.
Cody Walker stood out for Souths with a line-break and three try assists to his name in a brilliant performance at five-eighth while Greg Inglis was strong in the centres backing up from Origin.
The Rabbitohs will now face the daunting task of playing the reigning premiers in Cairns while Penrith take on Western Sydney rivals the Wests Tigers.
Statistics
Possession: 48% – 52%
Completions: 31/40 (78%) – 29/35 (83%)
All Runs: 172 – 179
All Run Metres: 1485 – 1530
Line Breaks: 5 – 3
Offloads: 11 – 14
Tackles: 340 – 327
Missed Tackles: 26 – 25
Penalties: 8 – 8
Errors: 8 – 6
The Roar’s NRL MVP votes
3 – Bryce Cartwright
2 – Sam Burgess
1 – Cody Walker
Final score
Penrith Panthers 28
South Sydney Rabbitohs 26
You can find Riley on Twitter @rileypettigrew
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