- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The Penrith Panthers are through to the second week of the NRL Finals after putting in a brilliant second half to record a convincing 16-point victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs at Allianz Stadium in the second elimination final.
» Re-live all the action with our live blog
The Panthers struggled during the first half, a lack of finals experience seeming to get to them, but the second half saw them run away with the match on both ends of the park as they dominated the contest.
Penrith’s kicking game was non-existent during the first half, and not much better during the second, but the difference stood as they were able to get their structure right and test the Bulldogs defence on a number of occasions, crashing over for plenty of tries.
Matt Moylan and Bryce Cartwright were absolutely fantastic throughout the match and their combination tore shreds off the Bulldogs.
With the Panthers forward pack holding solid throughout the match, led by Trent Merrin and their explosive front rowers Suaia Matagi and Leilani Latu their backs did the damage as the Bulldogs’ defence was put to the test.
Canterbury would struggle with injuries after a strong defensive first half, with Brett Morris and Michael Lichaa both going down.
Their second half though, saw what could only be described as a weak attack and not good enough defence.
Canterbury would be the first to score in the 14th minute, taking it left with a number of passes on a play that looked like it was absolutely going nowhere before Moses Mbye through a massive dummy and ran straight through the line, past Bryce Cartwright and onto the try line.
After a missed conversion, Mbye would make that up with a penalty goal to send the Bulldogs up by a converted try.
The Panthers would get back into the contest during the final 10 minutes of the first half though, and eventually scored right on the stroke of halftime as Matt Moylan ran to the middle, got an offload away and Nathan Cleary supplied a wonderful cut-out ball for Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to score in the corner.
It didn’t take long for the Panthers to get cracking in the second half as Moylan and Mansour, along with Bryce Cartwright and Peter Wallace got firing.
Waqa Blake would be the man to get the scoreboard ticking over with a long-range try. The Bulldogs finished a standard attacking set before Moylan found Mansour and he broke the line, running about 80 metres before passing to Blake who crashed over in the corner.
It took about quarter of an hour for the Panthers to go over again, but it was the try that broke the Bulldogs defence in half as Mansour and Moylan combined on a wonderful wrap around, before Isaah Yeo ran down the sideline, passed inside to Blake and then found Wallace who scored under the sticks.
It didn’t take too long for the next try though as the Panthers extended their lead and landed a death blow after Wallace ran the ball on the last play, offloaded it back in and then a number of tip on passes followed before Peachey scored in the corner.
Following a penalty goal and a bit of controversy as Josh Morris was denied a try, the Panthers would boot over a penalty goal and then add one final try as Josh Mansour broke out of his own half and ran 50 metres to score.
Sam Perrett, in his final first-grade game, would add a consolation try and then step up to convert it, but in the end it was all too little too late.
Penrith now go on to face the Canberra Raiders away from home next week in what is all set to be a cracking contest, while the Bulldogs can make their plans for mad Monday.
Final score
Penrith Panthers 28
Canterbury Bulldogs 12