No Nathan, but Penrith still rule roost
Sunia Turuva has bagged the first hat-trick of his NRL career as Penrith overcame Nathan Cleary’s absence for a 22-16 defeat of the fast-finishing Sydney Roosters.
Talismanic halfback Cleary (hamstring) joined Scott Sorensen and James Fisher-Harris in the casualty ward after Thursday’s clash in Sydney and could miss up to a month.
But all signs are that the Panthers will be able to keep their premiership defence on track without the general after they unleashed their suffocating best on the Roosters.
“I was very proud,’’ said Panthers coach Ivan Cleary.
“When you've got players out, or there are key combinations that are changed, it’s going to test your systems and your culture. [But] we pretty much did everything we wanted to do throughout the game.’’
Dylan Edwards orchestrated the early 14-0 lead that proved pivotal and standin halfback Brad Schneider ably handled Cleary’s workload with the boot on club debut.
The Roosters were left to rue an errorprone start and a no-try call that proved significant, given the final margin.
Joey Manu scored what would have been the Roosters’ first try, only for decoy runner Jared Waerea-Hargreaves to be ruled as having obstructed Edwards.
But once off-contract Turuva struck twice in five minutes after the break, the Tricolours, down 22-6, had it all to do.
Tries from Brandon Smith and Daniel Tupou put some respectability on the scoreboard in the final six minutes.
“I like the fact we had the ability to go after it at the end, to hold it that close, but we were well beaten in a lot of areas,’’ said Roosters coach Trent Robinson. – AAP