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This should be a great night for the Penrith Panthers, who reasserted their position as Premiership threats by downing South Sydney 16-10 at BlueBet Stadium.
Yet, inevitably, the talking point will be a much more depressing story, which saw a fan ejected from the stadium after allegedly racially abusing Latrell Mitchell.
There had been other drama at the interval as Nathan Cleary limped down the tunnel with a suspected ankle injury, though the Panthers were quick to quash any speculation that it was serious and the halfback returned for the second half.
Ivan Cleary confirmed that he would go for scans – as would other players, though he declined to name who. Jarome Luai left in a moon boot but insisted that it was nothing serious. The Panthers sit out Round 3 before travelling to Parramatta for their derby on the Thursday night of Round 4.
“They (the medics) didn’t seem too worried at half time asked they’d looked at it,” said Ivan of Nathan’s injury.
“There’s a couple of guys actually injured at half time, so we’ll have to assess it tomorrow. It might be a good time for the bye next week.”
The Mitchell incident soured what was a superb game between two of the clear Premiership contenders. The Panthers, who had lost two on the spin at home, turned in a performance of the highest quality to out-grind the Bunnies.
Souths were dogged, but failed to make a real impression in attack until late in the game. By then, it was too late.
“I felt we lent back,” said Souths coach Jason Demetriou. “To use a boxing analogy, we tried to fight off the ropes. I don’t think we stepped in the fight enough. We’ve got to be better.
“They lost their first game so obviously their motivation is higher. Motivation is good coming here but when you get on the field you have to step in. There were moments where we were good but you have to step in with motivation in both halves.
“I felt like if we could have scored first in the second half we could probably go on with it, but we gave away an early try and made it too hard.”
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
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These are two exceptionally good teams. Hardly a hot take, given they’re one and two in the betting for the Premiership, but from the first whistle, it was clear that this was a high quality contest.
The average team gets through 39 sets per game, but at half time, it looked like that might be somewhere in the mid-40s, such was the pace being set by both teams. It slowed up, understandably, after the break, but the standard had been set.
The linespeed from both teams was good, but any contest that involves a prolonged grind always likely to favour the Panthers. Souths had to sub Davvy Moale after 11 minutes and Tom Burgess after 20. Penrith’s middles were still going.
You can’t out Penrith Penrith, and it’s even less likely to happen without the likes of Tevita Tatola and Jai Arrow, both out today for the Bunnies.
Souths are probably the best attacking side and Penrith are certainly the best defensive one, and that’s how this played out in the end.
Penrith have lost twice on the spin at home, but conceded just two tries on both occasions. That aspect of their game hasn’t gone anywhere.
Good defence tends to beat good attack and that was the case tonight, but in truth, there wasn’t really a loser, because Souths got a superb hit out against a team that they’ll be facing again in the latter half of the year.
When the Panthers’ linespeed is working, you can look to their wingers for the reason why. Back 3 metres in yardage are vital for two reasons: they’re sustainable across 80 minutes because wingers don’t get subbed on and off, and they allow the middles to rest in attack and thus fire up in defence.
The wingers need to be doing the bulk of the metre work if the Panthers are to be at their best, and that was certainly the case tonight. Brian To’o was back at his usual high standard and was joined by Sunia Turuva, with Dylan Edwards chiming in.
All of the back five topped 100m with ball in hand, combining for over 50% of the total yardage between them. It’s the fundamental of their style and the secret to their defence – and it was back on form tonight.
When games are as tight as this one was in the first half, the transition becomes the key phase of the game. Souths have, in the last year, resisted the urge to cycle with the likes of Penrith, figuring that they would lose if they tried. Today they tried, and they lost.
But Souths did find some joy in their willingness to engage. Lachlan Ilias, in particular, came with a plan.
Every kick he took landed on top of Sunia Turuva and there was a noted improvement in his longer kicking, with a few steepling spiral bombs sent up. Though there were no headline grabbing moments like last week, the improvement remains clear to be seen.
The trouble was that he was up against the best. Nathan Cleary was imperious with the boot and gave the Souths back three nightmares from the first minute.
His first saw Alex Johnston stranded and almost resulted in a try, and his second did the same to Izaac Thompson. The third left Latrell Mitchell standing a long way from where the ball bounced.
Ilias’ kicking was absolutely fine, but Cleary’s was just so much better. Finding the floor and starting Souths slow forced them to fight for every yard, which caught up by the end.
Almost as impressive as Ilias last week was Campbell Graham. Back in September, he had his heart set on representing his Scottish heritage at the World Cup, but unexpectedly found himself in the Kangaroos squad after Selwyn Cobbo failed to impress in the PM’s XIII game against PNG.
He was certainly the last man on the squad list, but took his opportunity with both hands and had a superb tournament. Now, that form has been carried into the NRL season with two outstanding showings to kick off the year.
Tonight, he was the one leading the Bunnies’ chase and putting forward his case as the best defensive centre in the comp.
Some of his first contact on Turuva was exceptional, holding his man up and turning him around to deny the Panthers a set start.
On others, he shot the line and chopped Jarome Luai, halting the attack even when he didn’t complete the tackle himself.