Panthers down Warriors 40-12 in Auckland
Coach Matt Elliott won't entertain the subject of his Penrith team's challenge on the NRL top eight despite a crushing 40-12 win over the Warriors in Auckland on Sunday.
It was the Panthers' third straight win in the NRL and their most impressive yet, outscoring the Warriors seven tries to two in the one-sided blow out.
But despite the purple patch the Panthers are in, Elliott says round six is too early to look at where teams are placed on the points table and make assesments.
"To come away from here with two points, I'm happy but I think it's premature to start looking at competition tables," Elliott said.
"We're starting to evolve our footy to where we want to take it, but this is a dangerous place to come, we faced a dangerous opposition today and I was proud of what we did, particularly defensively."
Warriors coach Ivan Cleary admitted his side were clearly second best but had a verbal crack at the officials for allowing the Panthers to slow the play the ball down when the home team were on attack.
"We were totally outplayed really," Cleary said.
"We started poorly and gave away way too much possession which they hung onto. They scored three tries off bombs and that's something we talked about.
"We just didn't really give ourselves a chance in that first half, any opportunities we got we couldn't finish, we couldn't even finish a set really.
"We started the second half well and started to get ourselves back in the game. We weren't helped by the referee at that point.
"Generally they (the Panthers) did a great job in slowing us down to play the ball and you have to question some of the tactics, hands on the ball, blokes lying on the ruck, that went on all day with them."
This was the Panthers game from the off. Luke Walsh put up a crossfield kick which the Warriors responded slowly to, leaving Adrian Purtell to catch the ball and score.
By the 13th minute the Panthers had their second try, Brad Tighe broke two tackles on the left wing and raced 30 metres before offloading to Kevin Kingston.
Their third try was similar to the first with another high kick from Walsh. Tighe gathered the ball and sent off a quick pass to Lachlan Coote to score.
As the game slipped away from the Warriors the players lost composure and the penalties began racking up against them.
Walsh also set up the next try with a high kick, this time to the right wing where Michael Gordon was first to the ball.
Tongan born Ukuma Ta'ai picked up a try for the Warriors early in the second half, just after Brent Tate went in as the home team finally got into the game.
But that was where the comeback would end as Travis Burns stretched out in a tackle for the Panthers' fifth try, while 15 minutes from time Purtell bagged his second, running over Kevin Locke to ground the ball.
Kingston's try five minutes from time was the signal for the spectators to head to the carpark, ending another rough day for their fans.
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