Panthers’ late flourish denies plucky Roosters

BlueBet Stadium: Trent Robinson was hardly thrilled with the performance of referee Gerard Sutton and said it was “fact” and “not bias” the Sydney Roosters never came out on top when it came to tight calls from officials.

The Roosters seriously had a crack against the Panthers before surrendering a second-half lead to lose 26-18 in front of nearly 17,000 fans who braved the wet at the foot of the mountains.

A contentious penalty against Sam Verrills for a tackle on Scott Sorensen just before half-time, the sin-binning of Angus Crichton for a professional foul and a series of off-side penalties in the second half, which allowed the premiers to eventually triumph, did not sit well with Robinson.

The premiers won the penalty count 8-3 with Phil Gould even commenting on Nine about Sutton’s happiness to keep blowing the whistle during a fantastic contest.

“There have been way too many penalties and way too many six-agains,” Gould said.

Api Koroisau dives over for a second-half try to seal the Panthers’ win over the Roosters.Credit: Getty

While delighted with the defensive effort of his Bondi boys, Robinson was not as complimentary about Sutton. He even described the Verrills’ penalty as “a horrible decision”.

“We shouldn’t have let a try in at the end of it, but there were so many poor decisions tonight,” Robinson said.

“We had the same referee last game, and it was like 30-odd offsides, and it was a 3-1 penalty count.

“Every opportunity, Sam Verrills, the sin-binning [of Angus Crichton] ... we’re not playing rugby union. Then the offsides on the tryline ... it wasn’t a good enough performance tonight [by Sutton].

“We were really strong tonight, we shouldn’t have let in some of the tries we did, I thought we won the physical battle, but there were issues there with our team and not the other team. It’s not going to happen in Roosters colours. That’s not bias, that’s a fact that you won’t get those opportunities.”

Even James Tedesco fronted Sutton after Nathan Cleary rifled a beautiful pass for Izack Tago to score, which gave Penrith a lead they would not surrender the rest of the night.

“It feels like we’ve been called off-side 10 times in a row,” Tedesco said.

There were 11 players backing up from last Sunday’s Origin II spectacle in Perth, and nearly every single one of them had a red-hot crack for the entire 80 minutes.

NSW coach Brad Fittler was on the BlueBet Stadium sidelines and while proud of the 10 Blues in action, there would have been some concerns over right centre Stephen Crichton.

Crichton appeared to clutch at his hamstring midway through the first half, barely attempted to leap for the ball afterwards and had little involvement. He was still able to finish the game for Penrith, and Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said afterwards the centre may have experienced a “nerve problem”, but was fine.

Rookie Panther Taylan May is met by the Sydney Roosters defence.Credit: Getty

The Panthers made it 14 wins from 15 games and would have welcomed a match that was not actually done and dusted by half-time.

The Roosters sit outside the eight, but they would have won plenty of admirers.

Maybe the Penrith and Roosters grand final plenty of good judges predicted at the start of the year can still happen.

Victor Radley cut a few blokes in half in defence in his return game from injury. He finished the game not happy about being forced off for a bizarre head injury assessment.

Joey Manu had some lovely moments at five-eighth, a position described as “his best spot” by Andrew Johns on the Nine coverage.

Robinson said of Manu in the No. 6 jersey: “He was great, and did that off no training and coming off the New Zealand game. Having Ted and Joe there, it was so enjoyable to watch them play.”

Sitili Tupouniua could be in trouble after being placed on report for whacking Viliame Kikau in the head in the first half. But they will have Luke Keary, Jared Waerea-Haregreaves and new recruit Matt Lodge all possibly back after the bye round.

“The boys showed a lot of ticker, it felt like we dominated the physical battle in the game, and we were really disappointed to lose,” Robinson said.

The ultra-reliable Sio Siua Taukeiaho stormed over early in the second half to set up a thrilling final half hour. The Super League-bound prop finished with nearly 20 runs for 180m.

He was great. So were the Roosters. Penrith were better. You can catch them - maybe - on the first Sunday of October.

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