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Wests Tigers have ended a 12-game losing streak by pulling off the biggest upset of the season in taking down premiers Penrith 12-8 at Bathurst’s Carrington Park.
The rank underdogs outplayed the Panthers throughout the contest and thoroughly deserved their first win since Round 20 away to Brisbane last year after starting this season 0-7.
Tigers’ hearts were in their mouths when Jaeman Salmon claimed what would have been a match-winning Panthers try three minutes from full-time but it was denied due to an indiscretion in the lead-up by Tyrone Peachey.
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Penrith have dropped to sixth on the ladder with a 4-4 record but will sink to seventh after being leapfrogged by whoever wins on Sunday in Auckland between Warriors and Roosters.
Junior Tupou is tackled by Brian To’o. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
“It’s not just a win, it’s a really good win,” coach Tim Sheens said. “I didn’t think we did anything to not deserve it. There was no luck in it, we worked really, really hard to get it.
“We’ve had a lot of issues, we’re not going to offer up any excuses but over the last three weeks we’ve been building for that.
“We had a good game plan we thought, we prepared for the rain, and the boys carried it out almost to the letter.
“That will show the guys that if they stick to what they’re prepared to do, we’ve got a decent football team there.”
Penrith were stilted and error-prone in torrential rain on Saturday night but mostly fell victim to a polished Tigers side that finally delivered on the potential shown this month.
“In the conditions, they played better,” Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said.
“They deserve a lot of credit but we didn’t play real smart tonight.
“We definitely feel like we added to the loss ourselves tonight.”
Wests Tigers were clearly the better team in the first half, barely dropping the ball in the wet and Api Koroisau sniping out of the ruck to keep the Panthers backpedalling.
The hooker’s performance would not have gone unnoticed by NSW coach Brad Fittler, who is set to choose between Koroisau and Damien Cook when he names his team for State of Origin I.
“We just played hard footy, tough footy,” Koroisau said.
Luke Brooks’ left boot kicked the Tigers into gear early with a 40/20 kick and he then stabbed in a grubber for Brandon Wakeham to pounce after a rare Dylan Edwards handling error under the posts.
The Panthers equalised when Jarome Luai dropped the ball onto his left boot for a grubber that led to a Peachey try and after a penalty goal each, it was 8-8 at half-time.
Tigers centre Brent Naden was banished midway through the opening stanza for a shoulder charge on Panthers forward Zac Hosking with only the lack of contact to his opponent’s head saving him from a straight send-off.
The ex-Panther had only just made his return from a shoulder injury but can expect to spend more time on the sidelines.
“When ‘Nado’ went off to the bin we were awful,” Cleary said.
David Nofoaluma lucky not to join his teammate in the sheds when he clipped opposing winger Sunia Turuva high but referee Adam Gee opted to only issue a penalty.
“It was just very lucky he got up very quickly. It was clumsy,” Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga said on the Fox League coverage, agreeing with fellow analyst Cooper Cronk that the winger probably should have been marched for 10 minutes as well.
Cronk accused Gee of being “gun-shy” because he didn’t want to reduce the Tigers to 11 players.
Already without Spencer Leniu and James Fisher-Harris, the Panthers lost another prop to injury in the first half when Matt Eisenhuth suffered shoulder damage.
Brooks opened the second half as he had started the first with a booming 40/20 and this time Nofoaluma was the player who cashed in, finishing off a right-side raid to clock up his 100th try in the NRL – 97 in his decade-long stint at Wests plus a few during his brief loan stint with the Storm late last season.
“His kicking game was how we won today,” Koroisau said of Brooks.
Nathan Cleary looked set to put the Panthers back in front in the 55th minute but fumbled the ball as he slid across the line after a rousing tackle from rookie fullback Jahream Bula.
Wests should have gone 14-8 up when Soni Luke was sin-binned for a hip-drop tackle in the 68th minute but Wakeham sprayed the penalty goal attempt.
But in the end it didn’t matter as they hung on for a massive boilover victory.
Tigers players had waited 273 days for victory and celebrated like they’d won the Grand Final after beating the two-time defending champions.
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