Panthers 26 Rabbitohs 22
The wooden spoon is months away, but South Sydney went to the foot
of the mountain yesterday for a death-or-glory battle with Penrith
to shed the mantle of "team we'd most like to be playing next
weekend".
In the end, the Panthers got the points - but it was a close-run thing, and both sides were poor enough to suggest opposition coaches will look out the highlighter texta and mark weeks of comparative respite on their fixture lists.
Afterwards, Souths coach Jason Taylor hung his hat on the second-half fightback, while Penrith's Matthew Elliott chose the invigorating effects of a hard-fought victory as his talking point.
Both spoke the truth and it was better to listen to than the alternative - an honest appraisal of the medical effects on coaches of players repeatedly coughing up possession on the first tackle or giving away piggy-back penalties just as the opposition is getting a roll on.
For examples, take a pin and point. What about David Kidwell's effort just before half-time? Busting the line, giving the perfect shoulder ball to Fetuli Talanoa, who galloped 45 metres to the line for Souths' first try. Kidwell backed it up by losing the ball from the kick-off. Offered the advantage, Penrith capitalised, Adam Woolnough shoving off three defenders to push the Panthers out to a 22-6 lead at the break.
Or Penrith replacement hooker Paul Aiton, whose zip from dummy half set the Souths defensive line reeling and led to a repeat set, with Panthers on high attack and ready to put the game out of reach. He backed it up with a simple forward pass from the ruck, Souths made their way out of trouble and scored the next try to bring it back to a four-point ball game with nine minutes to play.
After a week in which murmurings of discontent were writ large, Elliott was off the bottom of the ladder and said he was over the moon for his players. "In many respects, winning in that style was something we needed to do as a group - we needed to find a situation where we needed to fight hard, and we did," he said, explaining why winning ugly works best.
Taylor, still searching for a W, told his charges the loss wasn't the end of the world. "The premiers have had two losses in a row; I think most teams are going to go through this. We've just got it at the start of the year," he said.
"And how we handle it will determine where we end up in this competition; how we handle this period right now. It doesn't get any tougher than this."
The second half gave Taylor cause for optimism, but in the first stanza, Penrith ran riot. Power forward Frank Pritchard was a constant menace down the left side, setting up the first try (scored by centre Brad Tighe) with a cut-out pass to winger Luke Rooney and gifting Tighe a second when he gave Souths centre Yileen Gordon nightmares before popping up a short ball.
The second-rower still had energy to leave a permanent indentation in Michael Greenfield's rib cage when the Souths prop offered an inviting target while trying to slip an offload near the Penrith line.
In the second half - minus Roy Asotasi, who retired hurt with concussion - Souths attempted to find their way back into the game, with five-eighth John Sutton the go-to man, getting between Tighe and his opposite number Maurice Blair four minutes after the break to peg back the lead to 22-12.
Greenfield rallied, too, and, perhaps inspired by Eels prop Nathan Cayless's field goal against the Knights on Friday, chipped ahead for lock Ben Lowe, only to take a return catch off the post and score himself.
Penrith, meanwhile, were grimly hanging on to the lead, potting a penalty to go 26-18 and then caught waiting for the hooter when Sutton again got through a hole to send Dean Widders over.
But Penrith weren't about to let go of a first win. Tony Puletua put some of the errors down to brittle confidence after a tough week, an excuse Souths might need when they play Manly at Brookvale Oval next Sunday.
"We'll take any two points. It doesn't matter how we win or what we win by," he said. "A win's a win for us."
True words and truer still for the Cowboys, Manly and Souths, the three sides still staring at doughnuts.
PENRITH 26 (B Tighe 2 M Blair A Woolnough tries J Sammut 5 goals) bt SOUTH SYDNEY 22 (M Greenfield J Sutton F Talanoa D Widders tries I Luke 2 G Ndaira goals) at CUA Stadium. Referee: T De Las Heras. Crowd: 10,839.
