Saturday 24th April at Penrith Stadium
Penrith 20 – Tries: Beckett (2), Girdler (2); Goals: Girdler (2) | North Sydney 18
More: http://themightypanthers.com/match0736.htm
Norths scored the first points through a penalty conversion to lead 2-0.
In the ninth minute, Ryan Girdler popped a pass around the Bears winger to find an unmarked Robbie Beckett who scored near the left corner. Girdler’s conversion made it 6-2.
A penalty conversion from Girdler soon after pushed it out to 8-2. In the 31st minute, he ran a gap 30 metres out and found his way to the try line untouched. Although he was unable to land the sideline conversion, the Panthers held a 12-2 lead at half time.
The visitors would score three tries in an eight minute period to lead 18-12 heading into the final twenty minutes.
With nine minutes remaining, Girdler snapped an intercept with the Bears attacking 15 metres from their line, and before being taken by the cover defence, passed it to Beckett in support who ran the last 30 metres and was also able to evade the cover defence in time before touching down to bag a double. Girdler was unable to convert and thus still trailed by two.
With five minutes remaining, Girdler also bagged a double when he ran off a Scott Sattler stepped and then offloaded and found the unmarked centre who only had to run a few metres to score. It saw them hit the lead, but once again the conversion was unsuccessful. However, the Panthers were able to hold out the Bears in the final few minutes to record a two point victory.
The Mighty Panthers 