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Penrith bounced back from their demoralising defeat to Canberra in style with a 52-16 NRL thumping of the hapless Bulldogs at CUA Stadium tonight.
The Panthers got their finals campaign back on track with the nine-tries-to-three win and completed a considerable turnaround from their 74-12 thrashing by the Raiders just six days ago.
Outside backs Luke Rooney and Michael Jennings did most of the damage, with French rugby union-bound winger Rooney scoring four tries, three of which were set up by Jennings.
The flashy centre also got on the scoresheet himself with a fine individual try, while Brad Tighe, Matthew Bell, Maurice Blair and Tony Puletua also scored.
Winger Michael Gordon kicked brilliantly with eight conversions from nine attempts.
The Bulldogs, who got their points through two runaway tries to halfback Daniel Holdsworth and a try to Darryl Millard, slumped to their fifth-straight loss and fourth since Sonny Bill Williams walked out on the club.
They were only spared dropping to last place by the Gold Coast’s 26-20 win over North Queensland tonight.
Rooney had two tries in the first half and both were almost identical as Jennings scorched down the touchline and turned passes inside to the lanky winger.
Jennings got on the scoresheet himself in the 32nd minute when he gathered a wayward Luke Lewis pass at his toes and showed dazzling footwork and acceleration to step his way to the line from 20 metres out.
Late first-half tries to Holdsworth and Millard made it 24-10 at halftime and gave the Bulldogs some hope but Rooney’s third and a long-distance effort from interchange forward Bell just after the break gave the Panthers a handy break.
Holdsworth was then awarded another via the video referee – who had a busy night – but late tries to Blair and Puletua put the final nails in the Dogs’ coffin.
Rooney crossed out wide with two minutes to go to become only the sixth Penrith player to score four tries in a match.
The Panthers moved to seventh with the win, but still face a tough assignment to finish in the top eight with matches against Melbourne, New Zealand and Manly in the final three rounds.
The struggling Dogs have now conceded 184 points in the four matches since Williams defected to French rugby union.
Penrith coach Matthew Elliott praised the way his side bounced back from the embarrassing loss to the Raiders and thanked the 7,841 fans who showed up to the match.
“I’m really happy for the players, it was obviously a very difficult week for them and just as importantly I’m really happy for our fans,” Elliott said.
“Myself and the players get to come and work on what didn’t go right last weekend.
“The fans were sort of a little bit powerless in that position so it would have been a tough week for them.
“I’m really pleased and obviously thankful for the people that did turn up tonight.”
Elliott admitted the Panthers were still puzzled about last week’s performance but he was proud of the way his side had moved on quickly.
“There was no pre-indicator at all as to what happened,” Elliott said.
“I think we did a fair job of moving on pretty quickly but you can’t say that you haven’t been conscious of it most minutes of most days.”
Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes said his team played well in patches but were suffering from a severe lack of confidence.
He was also disappointed in several video referee decisions that went against them.
“You could probably just cut and paste the last four weeks,” Folkes said when asked to describe tonight’s performance.
“Except tonight I thought we got a couple of dud decisions as well.
“That tends to happen to you when things aren’t going your way.”
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