Round 16
Panthers 24 d. Tigers 20

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Marshall's season in very serious doubt as Penrith win
Sun June 25, 2006
The season of the Wests Tigers best player Benji Marshall is in very serious doubt after injuring his troublesome shoulder in the dying stages of their 24-20 loss against Penrith in what was a great game of football.

Wests Tigers issued this statement following the match on their official website, www.weststigers.com.au:

"Wests Tigers five-eighth Benji Marshall will see his shoulder specialist on Monday, June 26, as speculation increases that his season is over.

"Marshall's right shoulder jumped out in making a tackle with seven minutes remaining against Penrith at CUA Stadium on Saturday night.

"The club will await for reports from the specialist before making an official announcement on the extent of the injury and if Marshall will play again this season."

Wests Tigers got the ideal start to the match with impressive young winger Shannon McDonnell scoring the opening try after six minutes. Brett Hodgson failed to convert with the Tigers leading 4-0.

Penrith fought back extremely well from the early setback and scored three unanswered tries to Danny Galea, Michael Gorden and Preston Campbell to lead 18-4 with Campbell converting all three.

Chris Heighington scored with seven seconds remaining on the clock to bring Wests Tigers back into the match trailing 18-8 at the break with Hodgson again unable to convert.

Ben Galea got Wests Tigers within striking distance with a try 10 minutes into the second half when Campbell dropped a towering bomb from Scott Prince and then hit the lead in the next set of six with McDonnell scoring his second try. Hodgson was successful converting both tries.

Wests Tigers held onto a tight 20-18 lead until the 74th minute when Craig Gower put in a fine cross field kick with Luke Lewis timing his jump to perfection and scored. Campbell was unable to convert the try but landed a late penalty goal for the 24-20 victory.

Penrith coach John Lang after the match said, "It was a great game of football. I could see right from the jump we were playing well but so were they. Both sides had really come to play. We had a good lead but they just moved that ball around. If you drop off for a second they can bust you, They're one of the most exciting teams I've ever seen, so it was a great effort by our guys to come back and win it."

When asked about Gower's prospects for filling the vacant halfback position in the New South Wales State of Origin side for the decider, Lang said, "Yeah, I think he did. I thought Craig was really good for us tonight."

Penrith had a few injuries during the game with Tony Puletua coming off with a rib injury early in the match and Rhys Wesser late in the match with a corked hip.

Another player to impress for Penrith was rookie hooker/lock Paul Aiton with Lang saying, "Yeah, he's a special little player. He's quite dynamic. It's his third season here and he's worked really hard on his game, his passing game from dummy half and it's just a tremendous asset to be able to use him at lock or use him at dummy half.

When Rhys got hurt late in the game, Paulie went to dummy half, Luke Priddis went to five-eighth, Preston went back to fullback, Frankie Puletua was lock, so it was just a really good team effort."

Penrith are now level with Wests Tigers on the ladder and both sides are two points out of the top eight.

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