South Sydney defeated Penrith 40-24 at Centrebet Stadium in Round 3.
The Rabbitohs jumped out of the blocks to lead 18-nil after 12 minutes – with Andrew Everingham crossing for a try just 90 seconds into his NRL debut. Prop Roy Asotasi crossed for a rare four-pointer three minutes later and when Dave Taylor grubber-kicked from dummy-half into the in-goal and won the chase, Panthers fans were entitled to wonder whether the game was gone even before they’d warmed their seats.
However, back-to-back tries to Kevin Kingston and Travis Burns bridged the gap to six points with nine minutes of the first half remaining, before a succession of penalty goals enabled Souths to take a 22-12 lead to the sheds.
But the writing was on the wall for the home side again straight after the break when Greg Inglis, playing his first game at fullback in the red and green, steamrolled over the top of Lachlan Coote to score just one minute into the second stanza.
That made it 28-12; the sides finished try-for-try over the concluding half hour leaving Souths dominant winners.
Penrith had no answer to the free-flowing Rabbitohs attack, which made eight line-breaks throughout the afternoon. Their stars included Inglis (a try, 193 metres and two line-breaks), Taylor (two tries and a line-break) and Sam Burgess (15 hit-ups and 26 tackles).
Dayne Weston was the Panthers’ best with 16 hit-ups and 135 metres towards his team’s lacklustre 937-metre total gain.
