Penrith Panthers v Parramatta Eels
Round 19, 2011
Centrebet Stadium
Penrith pulled off a rugby league miracle to secure a 23-22 win over their old rivals. Trailing 22-16 with just seconds remaining, the Panthers threw the ball from side to side in a desperate bid to level the scores. Incredibly, when the ball finally made its way out to Michael Jennings on the left edge, he managed to weave his way past three defenders before putting in a short grubber that fullback Lachlan Coote managed to pounce upon for the try. Travis Burns slotted home the conversion to send the game into extra time, but even then the drama wasn’t over. With luck clearly not going Parramatta’s way, a Luke Burt field-goal attempt cruelly struck the upright before Luke Walsh secured victory for the Panthers with a field-goal of his own.
Earlier, Penrith were forced to come from behind on three separate occasions to stay in touch with the Eels, who led 16-10 after Reni Maitua crossed in the 52nd minute (with David Simmons leveling the scores in the 62nd minute after a Lachlan Coote break) and 22-16 when Casey McGuire crossed in the 71st.
Coote was inspirational for the home side – scoring a try from a Walsh kick shortly before half-time and pulling off a huge hit on Etu Uaisele in the second half to force the ball free before picking up the scraps and sending Simmons over.
There were some phenomenal individual performances across the park – Kevin Kingston notched a massive 65 tackles for Penrith while Parramatta captain Nathan Hindmarsh put in a typically Herculean performance with 68 tackles and 134 metres in his 300th NRL game. Luke Burt ran for 203 metres for the Eels.