Fijian powerhouse Kikau scores twice in Panthers big win
Penrith’s lethal left edge of Fijian-born Viliame Kikau, Jarome Luai and Brian To’o put a sorry Sea Eagles outfit to the sword with a 46-6 win at Lottoland on Thursday night.
Luai set up three tries, Kikau and To’o each bagged doubles while makeshift left centre Matt Burton crossed for one as Manly’s right side defence was cut to ribbons in ruthless fashion.
The 40-point loss is Manly’s biggest ever at their home ground which was once a fortress but now holds few fears for visiting teams. Panthers coach Ivan Cleary described the performance as “very professional”, paying credit to Manly’s efforts to fix up a shocking early error rate to finish with an even share of the ball and an 80 per cent completion rate.
“Apart from their start I thought they actually played all right, they completed at 80 per cent for the game,” Cleary said.
“Possession was similar until the end. I was pretty happy actually.”
The early signs from Stephen Crichton at fullback and Burton at left centre were promising, with the pair likely to retain those roles against the Raiders next week.
“It was OK. It should get better,” Cleary said.
“When you get changes, even the mental challenges of this week, it tests your systems around players coming in and out. It does test your culture and it stood up tonight for sure.
“It’s early days but happy with what I’ve seen. You don’t win the comp in March.”
Cleary also admitted some confusion over a call in the second half to take play back a full set to penalise Mitch Kenny for a crusher tackle and put him on report. A drop from a Cleary bomb in the third minute allowed To’o to cross out wide from the scrum and a nice interchange of passing in the middle from Isaah Yeo and James Fisher-Harris put Moses Leota over in the 11th.
Kikau showed incredible hands to scoop up a Luai grubber that Manly failed to defuse to score in the 17th before To’o bagged his second from a superb Matt Burton long ball in the 24th.
Manly’s interchange players were the first to show any fight for the home side with Sean Keppie standing in a tackle and producing a late offload to Cade Cust that caught
Penrith off guard, with the utility scooting 20 metres to score next to the posts.
Josh Aloiai produced some huge charges and Keppie all but scored himself not long after but couldn’t quite get the ball down as Manly restricted the deficit to 16 at the break.
Kikau, fresh off passing a halftime HIA, crashed over for his second early in the second half and Burton made it five of six tries scored on the left edge when he cashed in on a period of sustained pressure in the 63rd minute.