Wallace’s impressive performance sparking talk of comeback for Blues Panthers rout Knights
OF ALL the Blues hopefuls running around at Penrith, surely Peter Wallace is entitled to add himself to the debate after another impressive effort at the foot of the mountains.
Wallace and the Panthers dominated Newcastle from the opening sets last night and powered away to a brilliant 40- 0 victory.
It was the sort of performance that convinced bookies to make them early premiership favourites a month ago.
While there were no shortage of stars for the Panthers, 31- year- old Wallace was one of the standouts, scoring a try and setting up another for Nathan Cleary late in the game.
Robbie Farah, 33, is the NSW incumbent, but Blues coach Laurie Daley has to give thought to Wallace, who played the last of his four Origin games at halfback in 2009.
Wallace only shifted to hooker last season out of necessity because of an injury to James Segeyaro. Segeyaro never won his spot back.
And what better way for Wallace to prove he is more than ready for an Origin return as a hooker than by going head to head with Melbourne and Queensland and Kangaroos great Cameron Smith next week.
Penrith skipper Matt Moylan and Trent Merrin will be there for the Blues, and so will Josh Mansour later in the series once he overcomes a nee injury.
Tyrone Peachey will be considered, while Wallace has to be a bolter, especially with the only other real candidate, Nathan Peats, still sidelined with injury.
Robbed by the referees six days earlier against the Sydney Roosters, the Panthers made a real statement in attack and more importantly defence.
Coach Anthony Griffin would have applauded the seven tries – and what could have been a few more – but the most pleasing thing was keeping the Knights scoreless.
Nobody will ever question the Panthers’ attacking prowess, but they are just as good for leaking a few points.
Dallin Watene- Zelezniak crossed for the opener in the fourth minute, and should have had a second a few minutes later, only to put his foot out over the sideline.
After the Panthers lost their way for a bit, debutant Corey Harawira- Naera charged on to a Cleary pass and scored, jolting the home team back to life.
The Panthers crossed again through Te Maire Martin and Peachey to make it 22- 0 by the break.
Waqa Blake and Peachey always looked dangerous on the left, Dean Whare and Watene- Zelezniak are settled on the right, while Trent Merrin looked like he struggled all night but still ran for an impressive 142m.