Friday 3rd July at Pepper Stadium
Penrith 20 – Tries: Blake (1), Wallace (1), Watene-Zelezniak (1), Whare (1); Goals: Koroisau (2) | South Sydney 6
More: themightypanthers.com/match1143.htm
In the ninth minute the Panthers opened the scoring when Waqa Blake spilt a Jamie Soward bomb close to the line, however knocked it backwards and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak picked up the scraps and drove himself over the tryline. Soward was unable to convert from the sideline and remained 4-0.
Midway through the half the home team further extended the lead when Bryce Cartwright broke the line on the last tackle and flicked a pass to Soward and a chain of passes found Dean Whare on the flanks and crossed over in the corner.
Penrith held out South Sydney defensively to hold an 8-0 lead at half time.
Soon after the resumption a Soward grubber kick was grabbed and grounded by Peter Wallace just before it went dead, and at the 60 minute mark the Panthers had extended it further to 18-0 when Blake managed to ground the ball before any part of his body went touch in goal.
The Rabbitohs finally crossed for a try with only five minutes remaining to make it 18-6 but a penalty conversion slotted by Apisai Koroisau with only two minutes remaining iced the contest, and recording an upset victory over the defending premiers.