Down and out, Panthers pounce to revive their season

PENRITH have revived their NRL premiership aspirations after overturning a 22-point half-time deficit to shock the Warriors 36-28 at Pepper Stadium yesterday.

When the Panthers trudged off at half-time trailing 28-6, they were booed by home crowd supporters and their season looked like it had flatlined.

However, after running in five unanswered tries in the second half, they looked cap- able of doing anything in this competition.

While they’re still 3-7 and in the bottom four, it was an important two points in the context of the Panthers’ season and broke a five-game winning streak.

Asked if he believed his side could come back from 22points down at halftime, coach Anthony Griffin said: “What do you want me to say? No?

“There’s no lack of belief in our guys, I thought we should have won that Brisbane game. We’re just finding way to get ourselves a long way behind on the scoreboard at the moment.

“It takes a real team effort and a tough team to come off the canvas like that.”

Isaah Yeo was the unlikely hero for the Panthers, scoring either side of halftime before putting Waqa Blake through a hole, with the Panthers centre running over the top of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to make it 28-24 after 56 minutes.

When Matt Moylan crossed in the 59th and Nathan Cleary potted the subsequent conversion, the Panthers had done the unthinkable and taken the lead. Tyrone Peachey crossed four minutes from fulltime and Penrith were suddenly looking like they were capable of shocking any team.

It was the Panthers’ secondbiggest comeback, falling short of the 23-point disadvantage they clawed back from against the Wests Tigers in 2000. PENRITH Tries: Goals: NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS Tries: Goals: Crowd: Referees: