The Synopsis - NRL Round 17

Panthers v Rabbitohs
The Panthers (20) defeated the Rabbitoh's (6) in their match at Pepper Park tonight. It was as comprehensive a win as Penrith could have hoped for over the reigning premiers. They had 58% of the overall possession and at times in the second half, seemed unstoppable with and without the ball. Penrith completed 35 sets at 81% and kept their opponents on the back foot for much of the match. To ensure that the visitors would almost always start from deep in their own half, Penrith's kickers gained over 564 metres off the boot, while Souths could only manage 351. Souths were forced to make 399 tackles to Penrith's 317. These Bunnies will really need their Saturday recovery session.

Penrith's second rower, with impeccable breeding, Bryce Cartwright, had a hand in all his team tries and ran for over 200 metres. His skills with the ball, from well directed reverse passes to banana chip kicks regularly presented opportunities to his team mates and confounded his opponents. For the second time in three matches he was the stand-out forward on the park - but unlike the match at ANZ stadium, two weeks ago, tonight his team won.

Souths had the ball for a maximum of 204 tackles (25 full and 9 incomplete sets) but were not able to score until the 74th minute, when the match and the two competition points were already lost.

For the second week in a row the Panthers were easily the best team on the field. On Saturday 11th July, Penrith will welcome the Roosters to Pepper Park (after 1 weeks rest) and a third win in a row (by the Panthers) will announce them as a contender for September. Meanwhile, Souths have next week off to prepare for the Dragons match at the SCG in Round 19. After that, the Rabbitohs play the Broncos, Bulldogs, Panthers (again), Cowboys and Roosters, in the run to the finals. Toss in Manly (at Brookvale) and many would argue that the Premiers will struggle to win enough matches to make the finals. No doubt some readers will disagree but from what I have seen so far, the Premiers are struggling. In 2014 they scored 24 points per match, conceding 15. This year they are scoring just 18 and conceding 17.

Dragons v Cowboys
Saturday night at Win Stadium in Wollongong, the Cowboys won their 7th away win on the trot. They scored three tries to the Dragons two and the final score was 18 - 12.

The Cowboys were without their four representative players, Thurston, Scott, Tamou and Morgan, while for the Dragons, Merrin and Dugan were also away on rep duty. To add to their woes, St George had seven other players out with injury or illness. (Jason Nightingale, Eto Nabuli, Dan Hunt, Joel Thompson, Jack de Belin, Tyson Frizell and Dylan Farrell).

With the teams using 13 second tier players between them, it wasn't an outstanding game of Rugby League. In fact, it was rather dour and a little dull.

However, the teams did put on a display of controlled rugby league football that will be difficult to emulate. Together they made a total of just 5 errors, which is remarkable, compared to the error rates in the previous 121 NRL matches. In rounds 1 and 2 the combined error rate was 24 per match. By round 11 the combined error rate was as low as 15 per match, but none has come close to 5.

After the 80 minutes, 67 out of the 75 possessions were completed, a rate of close to 90%. Clearly both Coaches had prepared their respective teams with simple game plans, hoping that if they played solid, sound, conservative rugby league, their opponents would crack under the pressure and eventually provide opportunities to score tries. However, only two tries came on the back of opponent's errors. Two other tries came in the sets after penalties were conceded and the fifth was the result of expansive football by Cowboys Lachlan Coote and Gavin Cooper, who combined to carry the ball deep into St George territory giving hooker Jake Granville the opportunity to barge over from dummy half.

The Cowboys scored tries in the 4th, 38th and 52nd minutes, while Saints crossed in the 29th and 62nd minutes. The last 18 minutes were played out in increasing desperation as the Dragons tried for an equalising try that never came. With 4 losses in a row St George will be happy that the rep season finishes on Wednesday. Next weekend they travel to Shark Park for round two of the local derby and in Round 19 they go to the SCG to play South Sydney. In round 20 they travel to Melbourne. One loss from these three matches could see them concede a top 4 position, two losses would see them fall toward the back end of the top 8 and three losses would be diabolical.

Sea Eagles v Sharks
At Brookvale Oval this afternoon 16th placed Manly defeated 10th placed Cronulla, 28 - 16 after controlling the match from start to finish.

From the kick off, the Sea Eagles forwards, led by props Willie Mason and Jake Trbojevic dominated their opponents in all aspects of the match, especially in defence. Both big-men were interchanged after about 20 minutes and their experienced no.9, Matt Ballin went off injured just before half time and took no further part in the match. Manly with a double for Jorge Taufua (7th and 20th minutes) led 10 - 0, but momentum changed with the personnel changes. In the last 15 minutes of the half, the Sharks had better field position, made fewer errors and managed to grab a try at the 38th minute, making the half time score, Manly 10 - Cronulla 4. Some commentators thought that the Sharks might have turned the match around.

That sentiment didn't last long.

As the second half got under way, Manly put their foot on the accelerator again (as they had at the beginning of the match) and with enthusiasm, field position and possession tries came easily. Steve Matai scored in the 46th minute and Daly Cherry - Evans in the 54th and with conversions by Jamie Lyon they took the score to 22 - 4. Only Cronulla diehards thought the team from the Shire had a chance after that.

Cronulla, it must be said were awful at times and it was the absence of Michael Ennis (suspended) that was decisive. During the match, Ennis' hooker replacement Pat Politoni, half-back Jeff Robson and bench warmer Ben Barba, all took turns at dummy half but it was clear that their timing and passing were not up to Ennis' standard. Politoni, a West Tigers junior (with just 12 senior NRL matches) does not pass well from right to left and although he tried hard, it was clear from Coach Flanagan's comments during the week (about using Barba in the role) that even he thought Politoni might struggle. Cronulla forward David Fifita scored two tries (too easily from a Coach's perspective) but the first didn't come until the 70th minute and the second was in the 80th minute. Jorge Taufua scored his third try to punctuate the last 10 minutes and stamp out any small chance the Sharks (and their fans) thought they had.

Cronulla take on St George, Canberra, Canterbury and New Zealand in the next month and if Michael Ennis is injured (or suspended again) in Wednesday's last representative match, based on their effort at Brookvale, they will lose all four. Manly's road to the finals is much harder because they are six points out of the Top 8, BUT, they have a quality squad, who are all returning from injury in time to make their run.

Tigers v Eels
After 15 minutes, Parramatta with 72% of the possession led 12 - 0, through back to back tries. The first by Captain Tim Mannah with a blind side dash and the second by Luke Kelly on the end of an excellent 50 metre attacking raid.

The next 15 minutes were a complete reversal as errors inside their own half, saw Parramatta concede possession to Wests and the result was three tries, two to winger Kevin Naiqama and one to veteran winger Pat Richards. Richards converted one try and kicked a penalty in the 39th minute for a half-time score of Tigers 16 - Eels 12.

The second half was a tight affair until the 57th minute when Eels hero Sami Radradra stole a Chris Sandow bomb from the waiting hands of his fellow Fijian Kevin Naiqama to run five metres and score. Ten minutes later he caught the bomb again and passed the ball to Sandow (following his own kick) who scored untouched. With two converted tries Parramatta led 24 - 16 and three consecutive wins were a distinct possibility. They made certain of the win when that man Chris Sandow threw a perfect cut out pass to (you guessed it) Semi Radradra. The try although unconverted slammed the door on any comeback by the Tigers and the final score 28 - 16 was a true indication of the eels dominance in the match. Parramatta's third win and next week's bye will see them sitting on 18 points, not far from a finals position.

After a week off, Parramatta (H) take on Canterbury in a Friday night clash that will start a 7 week run where each match will have their season on the line. In Round 20 they travel to Townsville for a Monday night match and its back to the Gold Coast (R21). Their last five are against the Panthers, Roosters, Sea Eagles, Sharks and in round 26 Ricky Stuart's Raiders.

Wests are in last place but should join Newcastle on 14 points, with the bye in Round 18. Given their ladder positions, both these teams will already be planning for 2016 and Manly will be too, unless they can defeat all of, the Titans (Away R18), the Cowboys (Home R19) the Warriors (Away R20) and Broncos (Home 21). If that isn't a hard enough run, they face the Rabbitohs, Raiders, Eels, Roosters and Sharks over the last five weeks.

Readers who think that Wests, Newcastle, Gold Coast, Manly and Parramatta aren't already finished for season 2015, please write and explain how you think they will find a way to the finals.