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The Penrith Panthers are approaching dangerous territory and must pick up a win to get their season moving in the right direction when they return home to play an underperforming, yet still top four South Sydney Rabbitohs. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 7:55pm (AEDT).
Penrith have been one of the competition’s big underperformers so far this season, and will need mass improvement if they are to start making a charge for the stop eight as we enter the second quarter of the season.
They were improved last week, and with their forwards generally holding their own in terms of total field position and possession, a lot of their woes come down to goalline defence, and attacking structure.
Against Cronulla last week, they were able to go some way towards fixing up one of those issues with a reasonable performance, where they led heavily during the first half.
However, their second half, both in terms of errors and tenacity on the goal line was poor, and in the end, it was of little surprise the Sharks were able to mow them down.
The improvement came with Nathan Cleary and James Maloney playing on the same side of the field they did last year, however, their defence has been downright worrying at times this year, and there is a feeling they could play Souths back into form here.
While the Rabbitohs are at the right end of the ladder with a five and one record from their first six starts, if the ladder was done on form and form alone, it’s doubtful they would be in the top eight.
They keep finding ways to win, but have had a fairly easy run since their only true 80-minute performance of the season against the Sydney Roosters in Round 1.
However, as mentioned, they will have all the advantages in the forwards here, and if their ball handling and kicking game is good, there could be a real ambush at the foot of the mountains.
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They also need to get their left edge functioning again, as well as continuing to adjust to life without the recently retired Greg Inglis.
While the Rabbitohs don’t have a great record against Penrith, they have dominated this meeting in recent times, winning seven of their last ten.
Prediction
Hard to tip against the Rabbitohs here, even though it’s one of those games where fans of both teams would be wary. If they are at their best, it could be ugly.
Rabbitohs by 6.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this Round 7 match from 7:55pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.
Game information
Kick-off: 7:55pm (AEDT) Venue: Panthers Stadium, Penrith TV: Live, Fox League 502, Channel 9 Online: Live, Foxtel app, Foxtel now, Kayo Sports, 9Now NRL Digital pass Betting: Rabbitohs $1.65, Panthers $2.30 Overall record: Played 81, Rabbitohs 45, Rabbitohs 35, drawn 1 Last meeting: 2018, Round 2 – Panthers 18 defeat Rabbitohs 14 at Panthers Stadium Last five: Rabbitohs 3, Panthers 2 Record at venue: Played 42, Panthers 21, Rabbitohs 20, drawn 1 Referees: Ashley Klein, Piggy Przeklasa-Adamski
