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Nathan Cleary leads Penrith to finals win over Roosters

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2nd October, 2020
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Penrith are one win from their first grand final in 17 years after a first-half hat-trick from Nathan Cleary made the Sydney Roosters’ shot at a three-peat even more difficult.

Cleary racked up 21 points of his own as the Panthers held on to win 29-28, staving off a second-half comeback from the two-time defending premiers.

While Cleary got the points, halves partner Jarome Luai was just as good in his first finals match, but second-rower Viliame Kikau could face a ban for a dangerous tackle.

Penrith now advance through to the preliminary final, while the Roosters face a sudden-death semi-final between the winner of Canberra and Cronulla.

The Tri-colours also have their concerns, with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves on report for a high shot while now suffering two straight losses after last week’s thumping from South Sydney.

The win also took Penrith’s winning streak to 16, making for the equal-third biggest of all time.

But they didn’t do it easy at Panthers Stadium.

After leading 28-10 with 27 minutes to go, the Roosters scored two tries in 11 minutes through James Tedesco and Josh Morris to put themselves back in the match.

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A field goal from Clearly looked as if it would seal the match with two minutes to play at 29-22, but Penrith gave away a penalty from the kick off and Angus Crichton scored.

The Panthers were able to hold on, with Liam Martin making a last-ditch tackle on Morris and Kikau getting a finger on a 40-metre field goal attempt from Luke Keary.

That wasn’t the first time the Panthers had to rally.

After Morris and Freddy Lussick scored early, Penrith were facing their biggest deficit since they were forced to come from behind to shock the Roosters in round one.

Spending just 74 minutes behind on the scoreboard in their 1450 on the field since the competition’s restart, it was fair to ask if Penrith would have the answers.

But when it mattered they had more than enough.

It began in defence when Josh Mansour, Luai, Edwards and Stephen Crichton ganged up to force Morris over the sideline.

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From the second tackle off the scrum, the Roosters were caught offside. And from there, it was all Penrith.

Mansour had their first when Luai and Kikau combined in the lead up on the last, before Cleary went in under the posts from an Edwards ball.

Luai and Cleary then combined to give Penrith the lead, with the five-eighth grubbering for his diving five-eighth to scoop the ball up in front of Tedesco and score.

Cleary’s next was again courtesy of some nice lead up play from Luai, when he went across field and allowed Crichton to straighten up and put the No.7 over.

And when Luai batted back a Cleary bomb for Tyrone May to put Crichton over at the start of the second half, the game looked over before the Roosters’ near comeback.

© AAP

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