Penrith skipper Matt Moylan pushes for State of Origin nod in Panthers win over Warriors

MATT Moylan pushed his Origin claims by laying on two tries and having a hand in another as the Panthers came from behind to beat the Warriors.

Captain Matt Moylan of the Panthers is challenged by Thomas Leuluai of the Warriors.

MATT Moylan pushed his Origin claims by laying on two tries and having a hand in another as the Panthers came from behind to beat the Warriors 30-18 on Saturday.

The Panthers overcame a shaky start in the Shaky Isles, having taken their home game to Christchurch.

Tyrone Peachey scored a hat-trick of tries, with two laid on by Moylan, on the way to the Panthers’ five-tries-to-three win.

Moylan starred as he looks to claim his first NSW jersey while fellow Origin hopefuls Bryce Cartwright and Josh Mansour were solid for a Panthers side who were rocked by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake upon their arrival in New Zealand on Tuesday.

Tyrone Peachey scores his third try and first hat-trick.

The win sees the Panthers leapfrog the Raiders into eighth spot, following Canberra’s golden-point loss to the Dragons on Thursday night.

For Peachey, it was the first hat-trick in his career.

“It’s good we got the win,” Peachey said.

“(After half time) we had to defend better and execute our attack. We did that in the second half.”

Shaun Johnson again proved to be an enigma. He was easily the Warriors most potent attacking player but cruelled his side with a fumbling error which led to the Panthers first try and kicked the ball out on the full twice — once in general play and another from a restart.

The Warriors — boosted by a swirling breeze — led 18-14 at halftime.

Some feeble defence from Penrith’s right edge, which included Cartwright, coupled with sleek footwork from Solomone Kata allowed the Warriors centre to score after six minutes.

A blunder by Johnson led to a horror 10 minute period for the Warriors where they did not touch the ball and conceded all their 14 first-half points.

Johnson, running from dummy half, was dragged from the field of play into his in-goal before pushing a pass which was pounced on by Jamie Soward to score after 12 minutes.

Back-to-back penalties helped Soward to add a penalty goal.

The Warriors were punished further when Johnson’s restart sailed over the deadball line on the full.

Peachey benefitted from some good ball play by Matt Moylan.

Peachey sliced through the Warriors defensive line thanks to a late off-load from Moylan to extend their lead to eight.

New Zealand crawled their way back through tries to Jonathan Wright and Blake Ayshford to hold a four point halftime lead.

Peachey snatched back the lead when he again combined with Moylan to score in the 62nd minute. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak also crossed before Peachey completed his three-try haul with three minutes remaining to close out the game.

“They were running against the wind,” Peachey said of the second half.

“It was difficult. We are lucky to come away with the win.”

PENRITH 30 (T Peachey 3 J Soward D Watene-Zelezniak tries J Soward 5 goals) bt NZ WARRIORS 18 (B Ayshford S Kata J Wright tries S Johnson 3 goals) at AMI Stadium. Referee: Matt Cecchin, David Munro.

Originally published as Penrith skipper Matt Moylan pushes for State of Origin nod in Panthers win over Warriors