Penrith aresweating on the fitness of star winger Brian To’o after he was taken off with a knee injury in their 20-16 victory over the St George Illawarra Dragons.
To’o left the field early in the second half and did not return, with scans required to determine the extent of the injury.
Panthers prop James Fisher-Harris left the game against the Dragons in the 24th minute and didn’t return.
“A bit of carnage today. I don’t know how bad Fish’s shoulder is but it didn’t feel like he could go back on,” coach Ivan Cleary said.
“Biz has done something to his knee. It’s not good but that’s the situation we’re in.”
The Dragons also lost a key player, with hooker Andrew McCullough departing with what was later revealed to be a dislocated elbow.
Viliame Kikau enjoyed a dream start to his 100th game, scoring a spectacular charge down try and a second late in the first half to fire Penrith to a halftime lead.
The Fijian forward was already emotional after the Panthers flew over his parents for the milestone match, and celebrated in style with two tries that put Penrith 20-6 up at the break. Spencer Leniu grabbed the other, sandwiched between Kikau’s two scores.
Kikau’s first came on the back of two disallowed tries that had seen Izack Tago twice denied. It bore an eerie similarity to last week’s first half against Manly, where Penrith had two tries wiped off by the bunker before opening the scoring and racing into a lead.
Like Round 1, the Panthers were pegged back before halftime, with Tyrell Sloan touching a kick to get the Dragons on the board. St George Illawarra later shot themselves in the foot, however, with Jaydn Su’A sent to the bin for a late hit on Sean O’Sullivan.
Su’a later redeemed himself with a second half try that moved the Dragons to within eight points of the Panthers. Zac Lomax, also binned at one point, scored close to the end to get St George Illawarra within four points, but Penrith held on.
Penrith might consider themselves lucky to get the win in a game where they failed to score after the 35th minute, with their outstanding defence again securing the points.
“It was such a special scene on Thursday, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s a bit drained, and that’s how the game went for him,” Cleary said of Kikau’s emotional week.
“He hung in when he had to at the end, some days you need to find ways to win, and today was one of those days.
“In the end, I was proud of the boys the way they hung on. We made it hard for ourselves because the Dragons were coming at us with nothing to lose.”
Despite a strong start, the Panthers lost possession 45/55 in a game in which neither team handled the ball well, with both finishing with completion rates south of 65%.
The Dragons had two men sent to the bin – Su’A for a late hit, Lomax for a professional foul – and left themselves with too much to do despite a late charge.
“With the ball we were just way too clunky… playing 20 minutes with 12 men killed us,” said coach Anthony Griffin.
“But I was proud of their effort even though we’ve got a bit to fix up. To beat them 10-0 in the second half after everything we’d gone through was a massive positive for us.”
JennyFromPenny
Guest
Myself and plenty others watching the clock with a few minutes to go. Dragons were closing. But what happened to the time ? Lomax scores with just on 3min left, and the clock stopped. All good, not that I agree, but refs have discretion to stop the clock in the last 5 min. Then the clock restarted as Lomax was preparing to take the kick. All good, as it should. By the time he took the kick, the clock was down to 2:20. Clock stops again, all good. But then roll forward to the kick off, the clock reset to 3:06. Back to the time the try was scored. Let’s all hear about how Panthers are up the top so must be cheating. What about this though? Clear case of corrupt time keeping. Surely if it’s going Panthers way, they would have wound the clock forward.
flano684417
Roar Rookie
Agree Welcome to the Dragons Francis Molo! He was aggressive with some strong runs & hits. Very proud of Dragons effort last night. Great Atmosphere @ Kogarah last night, crowd right behind the team.
KenW
Roar Rookie
I'm pretty happy with the Dragons defence. A charge-down try, and then 2 barge-overs occurring with a forward in the sin-bin. Ultimately Penrith didn't score a single point with the run of play while the Dragons had 13 on the field, despite being the dominant team for large sections of the first half. It doesn't get 2 points this week but that's a good indicator for their capabilities.
Pomoz
Roar Rookie
It was a tough decision, but they still had plenty of time to win the game. It also meant that the Panthers lost their halfback for 10 minutes which certainly didn't help their cohesion. They were pretty clunky as they reshuffled their team. In the end it was goal kicking that was the difference. The Dragons were made to score out wide and were given difficult conversions. Put that down to the tough Panthers defence. I think the Dragons will do well this year, they are tough and fit and the youngsters show a lot of promise.
KenW
Roar Rookie
I can live with the Lomax sin-binning. It wasn't the most egregious case, but he knew what he was doing. I don't like that the ref justified it with (paraphrased) 'obstructing this close to the tryline means a professional foul'. A professional foul is not defined by how close to the tryline it is and I dislike that this has become a de facto rule - but that's a personal technical bugbear, not an argument against Lomax getting 10. Su'a though was ridiculous, it was touch and go for a penalty in the first place. And worse, it was inconsistent - when Hunt was hit in a later tackle near the end of the game, it was a penalty only. Mbye's energy and defence has been good but his service out of dummy half was abysmal. He was indirectly responsible for a bunch of plays that broke down out wide. Hunt is the only other hooker option in the squad, personally I think it's way too early to pair up Sullivan & Amone in the halves though - considering Sloan at the back - that makes an incredibly green spine.
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
Which Sutton , they both have a low bar .
souvalis
Roar Rookie
Kudos to Hook and Benny Hunt for presser calling it as it really was in that game. Their forwards were strong though.. Lawrie and Molo very tough play. For Penrith To'o injury saves Charlie, doesn't have it anymore.
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
Plenty of decisions went against the Dragons but 15 errors against the best defensive side over the last couple of years was not good enough. Su'a's sin binning was pretty harsh and even Lomax didn't change his line he just turned in the direction of the ball and the Panthers player collides with him. Mbye was generally pretty awful but came up with a nice try assist so will probably be hooker for the next few weeks in place of McCullough
Brett
Guest
I know it is early in the season, but sutton set the bar low in terms of reffing.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
JFH is a huge out Albo. I hope it's short term. Losing Leota as a backup doesn't help either. Still , Cleary is close and I don't see you guys dropping too many games.
Matthew
Guest
Penrith were lucky to win. The Dragon's were right in that game. The sin binning of Jayden Su'a was ridiculous. It was totally milked by the Panthers player. That one call by the Ref to get his name up in lights changed the game.
Albo
Roar Rookie
Panthers weren't at their best after halftime , and lost their structure with the personnel changes covering up for the injuries of To'o and Fisher-Harris. The experienced guys Yeo, Api, Luai & Edwards did enough to hold them together to get them home. That is a handy 2 & 0 start to the year, but things a looking a bit dodgy with the losses of Leota for 3 months, likely losses now of To'o and Fish , and Cleary is still not back. They have their work cut out early this season it seems.