Panthers mauled by
NO-ONE told St George Illawarra that this was meant to be the year of the Panther.
The inspired Dragons pulled off the biggest shock of round one at UOW Jubilee Oval yesterday, embarrassing early premiership favourites Penrith 42-10 and banishing all of the pre-season talk suggesting they would be one of the strugglers this season.
Led by their monstrous pack boasting irrepressible recruit Paul Vaughan, three-try hero Joel Thompson and the barnstorming Jack de Belin, the Dragons simply overpowered the lethargic mountain men.
Coach Paul McGregor had openly declared his team will be the fittest in the NRL this season, and no-one could argue any differently at this stage, with Penrith struggling to match the Dragons’ intensity throughout.
The surging pack was well supported by new hooker Cameron McInnes, assured out of dummy half, Josh McCrone, who steered the ship nicely wearing the No 7 jersey that Ben Hunt has been expensively recruited to fill next season, and captain Gareth Widdop, who produced a performance typical of his vintage that included two tries.
So effective was the McCroneWiddop halves pairing that youngster Jai Field didn’t taste any action until there was just 10 minutes left in the contest.
Penrith were shellshocked from the outset.
Their monster men James Tamou and Trent Merrin were outworked by their opponents, Nathan Cleary was invisible for large periods and captain Matt Moylan struggled to impose himself on the contest as he did in the final two months of last season.
Let’s reiterate – this was last year’s semifinalists who the punters have anointed, alongside Melbourne, as the team to beat this season, and a team who scored 222 points more than the