Round 12
Penrith Panthers 22 d. Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 16

2007 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

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

Panthers stunning upset over Sea-Eagles
Sat June 2, 2007
Penrith have upset competition leaders Manly 22-16 at CUA Stadium on Friday night.

Thurst behind 4-0 after the first set of six following a 60m try to Michael Robertson from a Watmough bust, Penrith remained composed steered on by a vocal home crowd.

In the 8th minute a rampaging Tony Puletua put the home side ahead 6-4 after throwing off several players on the way to a brilliant individual try.

Manly regained the lead in the 16th minute when Matt Orford dummied his way through close to the line catching Penrith's defence flat-footed.

Down 10-6 Penrith five-eighth Peter Wallace put in a man of the match performance on the back of agreeing to join Brisbane next season.

Wallace had a hand in the remaing three Panthers tries. Two sweeping backline movements posted tries on the right wing to Nick Youngquest, both times a deep backline allowed the Panthers to catch the Sea-Eagles short outwide.

Ahead 16-10 at the break the Panthers grew in confidence with an upset looming.

Wallace confirmed man of the match honours with a brilliant one handed offload on the run to find Michael Jennings. The centre picked the ball off his shoe-laces before offloading to Rhys Wesser at pace who exploded past Manly chasers to score under the posts.

A 67th minute try to Anthony Watmough kept Manly in the game, but constant mistakes defused any chance of a late comeback.

Panthers coach Matt Elliott made comment that his side showed fantastic commitment, courage and fortitude in the face of lopsided penalty counts especially in the second half.

"We really, really worked hard for each other." he said.

Coach Matt Elliott was philisophical on Wallace's impending departure:

"Yeah, I'm happy for Peter full stop. We had a long talk in the room next door and you know as a group. In footy people come and go. That's the reality. You'd prefer that you could keep all your mates but we're all happy for Pete. It's obviously a fantastic opportunity he's getting and he needs to play well to stay where he is. "

The Panthers still sit low on the premiership table with 4 wins and 7 losses and despite the win, Elliott indicated next weeks performance was critical in determining where his side sits in 2007,

"Well, we could get carried away or take it as a stepping stone and hopefully build on it and that's what we want to do. Too many sides can gee up for one week and then put in a poor performance. Our attitude now has got to be to enjoy the win, come back tomorrow for rehab and get ready for next week against the Bunnies ... the true class of a side is how we turn up next week. "

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