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The Penrith Panthers join the St George Illawarra Dragons at the top of the NRL ladder courtesy of another comeback win, this time against the Rabbitohs.
» Click here to read the full match report
Final score
Penrith Panthers 18
South Sydney Rabbitohs 14
The Penrith Panthers will be looking to maintain their perfect start to the NRL season when they host the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 5:30pm AEDT.
Penrith fans have reason to feel optimistic about season 2018 after witnessing their team overcome a 14-point deficit en route to a great win against rivals the Parramatta Eels last week.
The Panthers were not at their fluent best but still managed to get the job done against an Eels team widely tipped to feature in the finals this year.
Penrith have their own expectations to fulfil and have taken the first step towards realising potential that could see them feature significantly come September.
Although new recruit James Maloney got off to a somewhat slow start in his first game for Penrith, expect him to grow into his role alongside Nathan Cleary over the coming weeks. If Maloney can replicate the form he produced in his first season at the Roosters and Sharks, the Panthers will become a premiership threat.
The Rabbitohs meanwhile are without Adam Reynolds for today’s clash which means that Adam Doueihi gets his chance to prove his worth servicing class Origin stars such as Dane Gagai and Greg Inglis in the backline.
Indeed the bunnies will have to score plenty of points this season if they hope to win any matches based on last week’s defensive effort against the Warriors.
Conceding over 30 points in the opening round suggests that the bunnies may not be as defensively strong as season’s gone by.
If Penrith are able to limit the service that Inglis and Gagai receive, then it will go a long way to securing the Panthers their second straight victory.
Prediction
The Panthers have room for improvement, but their attitude was highly impressive in their comeback win against the Eels. This is a solid team and across the board, it appears that Penrith have South Sydney covered provided they don’t let hubris get the better of them.
Panthers by 12