A courageous comeback fell short for the Panthers in a 26-24 NSW Cup loss to North Sydney Bears at Parker Street Reserve on Saturday.
The Panthers trailed 26-6 early in the second half before roaring to life with three consecutive tries, but a late winner proved elusive.
Samuel Lane kickstarted the Panthers push, before a marauding Jesse McLean set up David Fale to score. A silky solo try by Zack Lamont set up a grandstand finish, but the Bears held on for victory.
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NSW Cup Highlights: Round 5
Match Summary
By Stewart Moses for NSWRL
The 11th-placed North Sydney Bears have defied a poor 3-17 record against their opponents to upset the fast-finishing Penrith Panthers 26-24 at Parker St Reserve.
With the Panthers losing some key personnel leading into the clash, they were no match in the first half for a Bears side influenced heavily by the performances of late inclusions, fullback Jake Toby and five-eighth Jesse Marschke, to set up a 22-6 lead at the main break.
Having trailed 26-6 early in the second half, the home side stormed back into contention with three unanswered tries in 10 minutes to trail 26-24.
The Panthers enjoyed an early territorial advantage but it was the Bears who opened the scoring, albeit against the run of play when Joe Chan pounced on a Penrith bat-back from a cross-field kick. The back-rower showed remarkable pace to race away 90 metres to score out wide. With half Harradyn Wilson landing the conversion the Bears had the early 6-0 lead after 9 minutes.
A kick-retrieval error presented the Bears with an attacking scrum 15 metres out from the Panthers' line and they duly scored with a sweeping back-line movement from the scrum win, with winger Abiarthur Toi Tuilaepa diving over in the north-west corner to extend the Bears' lead to 10 after 14 minutes of play.
Bears winger Matt Komolafe was given an opportunity to extend the lead in the 25th minute only to be stripped on the line by the Panthers.
But from the ensuring goal-line drop-out, the Bears’ adventurous play to keep the ball alive paid dividends when Jake Toby pounced on a loose pass to score. With Wilson again converting from out wide, the visitors enjoyed a shock 16-0 lead after 26 minutes.
A last-tackle penalty conceded by the Bears inside their own 20 presented the Panthers with their first score of the afternoon when a quick shift left ended with a floating pass to unmarked winger Asu Kepaoa to score out wide, converted by half Zac Lamont to reduce the deficit to 10, trailing 16-6 after 32 minutes.
A incident late in the first half incident that saw Penrith centre Sam Lane on report and into the sin bin proved costly when, from the ensuing penalty, Bears interchange forward Sean Vaivelata stormed on to a short pass to crash over underneath the posts from short range. It once again gave the visitors a handy 22-6 lead heading into half-time following the conversion to former Panther, Matt Stimson.
Having weathered some repeat sets of their own inside their 20, the Bears capitalised when given some repeat sets inside Penrith’s 20 when lock forward Trey Brown toed ahead a loose ball and was first on the scene to score out wide to give the visitors the biggest lead of the game, 26-6 after 50 minutes.
Penrith finally scored their second try of the afternoon when a quick shift right ended with centre Sam Lane crashing over out wide, and with Lamont’s successful conversion the Panthers had some hope trailing 26-12.
Penrith scored again moments later when a kick error from North Sydney gave the Panthers prime attacking position inside the 20. The home side showed incredible skill going left to right across the field before a Jesse McLean run created the overlap back on the left for centre David Fale to score out wide. With Lamont again successful the Panthers were back in the game, 26-18 down with 16 minutes remaining.
A grandstand finish was ensured when Lamont showed a surprise turn of speed and a step close to the line to score next to the posts with the Bears now clinging to a two-point lead with 10 minutes remaining.
But despite having several attacking opportunities in the closing minutes, a combination of desperate, scrambling Bears defence and poor options taken by the Panthers at key moments saw the visitors hang on for a 26-24 victory.
