Australia's front row stocks suffered a further blow when Kangaroos hopeful Ben Ross sustained a potentially season-ending knee injury during Cronulla's 40-12 NRL victory over Penrith.

Appearing in front of their home fans for the first time in 2006 after a stadium refurbishment, the Panthers were totally outplayed by a clinical Sharks side, but the strong performance was soured by a suspected torn cruciate ligament to Ross.

Much of the build-up to the mach centred on the clash between Ross and former teammate Joel Clinton who had a training stoush at the Panthers last season.

The duo, hoping to play themselves into a Kangaroos jersey for next week's Anzac Test, came together in just the second tackle with Ross falling awkwardly when trying to put a hit on Clinton.

"I'm pretty disappointed," Ross told Channel Nine.

"I was really looking forward to this game.

"I'm a bit down ... I was a bit angry when it happened."

Ross joins fellow Kangaroo hopeful Jason Ryles (hand) on the sidelines.

Despite the setback, the Sharks dominated, with winger Covell scoring the first of his two tries in just the sixth minute after a superb cut-out pass from halfback Adam Dykes found the Panthers short on the left-hand flank.

Workaholic lock Paul Gallen, in just his third game of the season, sliced through some feeble Penrith defence to post the visitors' second try ten minutes later. He then broke through the tackles of debutant Paul Aiton and Clinton to set up Luke Douglas and give his side a 16-0 lead midway through the half.

The Panthers clawed their way back into the contest with two converted tries in the space of nine minutes. Second rower Matthew Cross had the presence of mind to kick ahead just as he was about to drop the football to score an opportunistic try in the 23rd minute.

And then Rhys Wesser scored his fifth try in as many games against the Sharks after accepting a nifty offload from centre Danny Galea to give the crowd of 16,268 hope of a Panthers comeback.

But just 45 seconds before the main break, Beau Scott produced a miracle ball to gift Covell his second try and his side the ascendancy.

The Sharks started the second half like they finished the first, posting two tries in 11 minutes to all but kill off the contest.

And then Albert provided the punctuation mark, fending off Rhys Wesser on a 65-metre dash to post his second try.

In a further blow to the Panthers, forward Bryan Norrie suffered ankle ligament damage during the game.

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