Penrith blew the minor premiership race wide open and spoiled Mark Gasnier’s homecoming party in the process with a gutsy victory over St George Illawarra at WIN Jubilee Oval last night.
The Panthers won 12-8, with winger David Simmons sealing victory in the 75th minute when he took a Wade Graham crossfield kick to crash down and score.
Rookie winger Kalifa Fai Fai Loa breathed life into the Dragons with a late double, his second coming with less than two minutes remaining to reduce the margin to four points.
Full coverage of the Dragons But a dropped ball from Gasnier with seconds on the clock ensured the Panthers would join St George Illawarra at the top of the NRL ladder.
It was a tough night for the former Australian and NSW representative and all eyes were on Gasnier when his moment came after 26 minutes.
‘‘It didn’t go to script, especially with a couple of handling errors by me,’’ Gasnier said of his return.
Handing over the Dragons second interchange card, Gasnier raced on to the field prior to a Dragons goal-line drop out to rapturous applause from the crowd of 12,974 at Kogarah.
St George Illawarra chief executive Peter Doust had been locked in months of delicate negotiations with Gasnier’s manager George Mimis and the NRL as well as third party sponsorship to secure a contract and squeeze their former captain in under the salary cap so he could wear the Red V again.
In the end a deal with secured, with Gasnier believed to be paid $120,000 this season, with a back-ended contract of about $450,000 per season over five years.
Seconds after Gasnier’s arrival, the Panthers were denied a try by the video referee after Matthew Bell took Dragons defender Ben Creagh out of the action which opened up the hole for captain Trent Waterhouse to put the ball down.
It took just one replay for the man upstairs Chris Ward to put up the big red ‘‘no try’’ sign.
After missing a touch with the Dragons’ next set, Gasnier’s first run at the Penrith defence was on 28 minutes.
And he was met with a spirited three-man Panthers welcoming party including Bell and five-eighth Travis Burns.
In a battle of the competition’s two leading teams, the game lacked the State of Origin talent of eight players in camp with Queensland or NSW this week before tomorrow night’s third game at ANZ Stadium.
It put a dampener on the clash, as did the rain and a 6-nil deficit, all threatening to ruin Gasnier’s homecoming party.
The Panthers had gained the advantage through halfback Wade Graham’s try after he produced a simple dummy which bamboozled the Dragons defence and raced over between the posts.
The Dragons were denied two tries for forward passes, the first coming from Dean Young to Creagh in the 11th minute, before a Jamie Soward pass was pulled up when Michael Lett had dived over in the corner in search of a 46th minute equaliser.
Penrith extended the lead to 8-0 in controversial circumstances when St George Illawarra hooker Luke Priddis was penalised for pushing Penrith hooker Kevin Kingston out of the way before he dived on the ball at dummy-half.
It presented Coote with an easy penalty goal from inside 30m out and straight in front.
PENRITH 12 (W Graham D Simmons tries L Coote 2 goals) bt ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 8 (K Fai Fai Loa 2 tries) at WIN Jubilee Oval. Referee: Jared Maxwell, Brett Suttor. Crowd: 12,974.
NSW FOOTYTAB: Pick the score: St George Illawarra 8 Penrith 12 (3.5pts). Div: $1352. Pick-the-winners: Brisbane, Bulldogs, Sydney Roosters, NZ Warriors, Penrith. Div: $40.00. Pick-the-margins: Wests Tigers 1-12 Bulldogs 1-12 Sydney Roosters 1-12 NZ Warriors 13 plus Penrith 1-12. Div: $511.10.
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