Penrith Panthers struggled to hold their own in Round 13 of the Jersey Flegg Cup, suffering a 22-4 loss to the St George Illawarra Dragons at BlueBet Stadium on Friday.
The Panthers struggled to recover from an 18-point half-time deficit as the Dragons sent centre Jack Bostock over for a double, working to avenge their 10-point loss from Round 2.
The Dragons dominated early, with five-eighth Zach Herring flicking a cut-out ball to Bostock, putting him through a gap in the defensive line to open the scoring in the third minute. Alexander Lobb made no mistake with the conversion, taking St George Illawarra’s lead out to six.
Capitalising off back-to-back sets, the visitors found their way through again in the 24th minute, spreading the ball across field to find Bostock on the left edge with work to do. The SG Ball centre charged at the line, eventually beating off two Panthers to bag a double in the corner. Sam Hooper slotted the conversion from medium range, extending his teams lead to 12.
Seven minutes later the Dragons scored their third try of the game, with a strong run from Toby Couchman splitting Penrith’s line. Couchman turned around to find halfback Braxton Wallace in support, who raced away to score beside the posts.
HALF-TIME: PANTHERS 0 - DRAGONS 18
Connor Mason provided a glimpse of hope for Penrith early in the second half, chasing down his own kick to force the Dragons to concede a goal-line dropout.
But errors continued to plague Penrith in attack, with numerous knock-ons allowing the Dragons to maintain a strong field position.
Lobb broke the stalemate twenty minutes after half-time to add another four-pointer for St George Illawarra after Herring spotted him alone on the wing and sent him over untouched.
A final minute try to fill-in fullback Kristian Li Mai wasn’t enough to steal the win from the St George Illawarra side.
FULL-TIME: PANTHERS 4 - DRAGONS 22
