Peter Wallace's hopes of NSW selection suffered a blow as Penrith came back from the dead for a second week in a row to overrun the Newcastle Knights 30-20 at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.
Wallace, who is widely tipped to oust Robbie Farah for the Blues No.9 jumper, left the field in the eighth minute with a groin injury.
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Panthers escape after strong second half
After leading at half-time and looking very much the better side, the Newcastle Knights couldn't stem a Penrith fightback.
The Panthers trailed 12-0 at the time of his departure. The Knights extended the gap to 14-0 at the break.
The visitors were woeful in the first half, but like they did they did when trailing the Warriors 28-6 the week before, again they found a way back.
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With Trent Merrin and James Tamou leading the way, the Panthers crossed for five tries in the second half to blow the Knights away.
Merrin carted the ball 210 metres and offloaded a pass for Matt Moylan to open the Panthers' account.
The Knights were their own worst enemy in the second half and produced a series of dropped ball and poor options.
Penrith had 70 per cent of possession in the second half and simply wore out the Knights.
The Knights suffered a late change to the forward rotation after prop Josh Starling aggravated a hand injury in the warm-up. Jack Stockwell started and Josh King, who was 18th man, came onto the bench.
Energised from their 34-20 win over the Raiders last round, the Knights produced their best start of the season. Daniel Saifiti (93m) and Jock Stockwell (40m) bent the defensive line and Sione Mata'utia caused problems running angles back inside.Â
But when the Panthers lost Wallace, they lacked direction.
Brock Lamb opened the Knights' account when he collected a pass popped off the ground by Jaelen Feeney in the fourth minute.
Five minutes later Saifiti crashed over beside the post after Dany Levi sucked in two defenders. Lamb landed both conversions.Â
Both sides were guilty of sloppy handling and pushed passes midway through the half.
But throughout, the Knights defence remained strong. Luke Yates made a try-saver on Moylan and Saifiti stopped Leilani Latu just short.
At the other end, Lamb added a penalty in the 35th minute and was unlucky not to have scored a second try on the stroke of half-time.
Penrith winger Dallin Watene-Zelelzniak fielded a Mitch Barnett grubber and made it back into the field of play. He was met by Barnett and Brendan Elliot and the ball slipped out of his grasp. Sione Mata'utia swooped and linked with Lamb, who had free passage to the corner.
But referee David Munro ruled that Barnett had raked the ball out and awarded the Panthers a penalty.
The Knights had another 50-50 call go against them at the start of the second half. Again Lamb was away but Feeney's pass was ruled forward.
Fuelled by three straight penalties inside the Knights' quarter, the Panthers finally went over in the 50th minute.
Trent Merrin broke a tackle of Joe Wardle and offloaded for Moylan to crash over. Nathan Cleary added the extras for 14-6.
All of a sudden the Panthers were back.
Two minutes later, Latu crashed through three defenders to plant the ball down near the posts. Cleary converted to cut the gap to 14-12.
The visitors, buoyed by a glut of possession, started to dominate the ruck.
Tamou exposed tired defenders when he picked up a sloppy pass and stepped inside Sione Mata'utia to score a converted try to take 18-14 lead.
Momentum had well and truly swung and the Panthers went further ahead in the 68th minute when Watene-Zelezniak was first to a Cleary kick. There was a big question mark over the grounding but the bunker ruled in favour of the visitors.
Moylan rubbed salt into the wound in the 76th minute when Dane Gagia had an air swing at a grubber and the fullback pounced. Clearly added his fifth conversion for 30-14.
Peter Mata'utia crossed for a consolation try at the death but it was too little, too late.