While one former Panther struggled in his return to Pepper Stadium, Rabbitohs centre Robert Jennings enjoyed a pleasant outing to a place he once called home.
It was a short trip for the Jennings family, with the 21-year-old growing up 15 minutes from Pepper Stadium and regularly returning home throughout the season.
The 21-year-old admitted he was still adjusting to the busy lifestyle of the South Sydney region after making the move to the Rabbitohs, but was enjoying the change since departing the foot of the mountains at the end of last year.
"It was good to come back to my old ground and a place that I'm comfortable at so if anything, that was an advantage for me," Jennings told NRL.com.
"The whole family came out and they all still live close by so it wasn't hard for them to travel.
"Being able to play against some old mates that I came through in the Holden Cup with like Dylan Edwards and Dallin [Watene-Zelezniak] was good fun and made it even more special."
Injuries to regular outside backs Greg Inglis and Aaron Gray opened the door for Jennings to cement a position in the side after only managing five games at Penrith in 2015 under Anthony Griffin.
Jennings said the opportunity to play alongside players like Idris was a key factor in his move from Penrith to South Sydney.
"That was the main reason for my move… to play alongside players like the Burgess brothers, Greg Inglis and blokes like Adam Reynolds," he said.
"To learn off them who have been there and done that has helped me already improve my game.
"I'm still learning and listening to the leaders in the group.
"It's been a big change and a different lifestyle for me but I'm slowly adjusting to grow my game and become a better player at such a strong club like Souths."
The Minchinbury junior was adamant he scored a four-pointer against his former club in the 25th minute of the game when he dragged three defenders with him over the line, however the bunker ruled he was held up.
"I'm 100 percent sure I got that ball down… I knew I did but unfortunately there wasn't a great angle to call it on the replay," Jennings said.
"It definitely touched the grass but that's footy sometimes.
"The boys dug deep and they really put up a good fight, it was a tough game and we knew that but we held in.
"They fight hard and we knew that would happen so we held in, but Penrith did well considering they had a few players out."
Rabbitohs teammate Braidon Burns had a nightmare evening under the high ball, with former teammate Nathan Cleary delivering floating high kicks that many are calling "uncatchable" after six rounds.
"Those bombs of Cleary's are a hard one to catch and I don't think Braidon could've done anything about it," Jennings said.
"I would be the same trying to catch them, actually I wouldn't even get as close as [Burns] did.
"The boys fought for him though and he won't be the last player to be tested by Cleary this year.
"We'll look back at our game on video now and focus on what we can improve on before the Bulldogs on Friday."
