Round 2: Panthers v Rabbitohs preview
After a round one upset by the Brisbane Broncos, the Penrith Panthers will be determined to get their first win of the season as they host the South Sydney Rabbitohs in a rematch of last year's preliminary final.
Ivan Cleary and his side will be disappointed with how their opening match of the season turned out. They started well, scoring the opening try of the match but they had to wait another 69 minutes before adding more points onto the scoreboard. The absence of former hooker Apisai Koroisau was notable as Mitch Kenny failed to deliver any attacking prowess out of dummy-half, which was expected (more of a defensive hooker), however, when Soni Luke came from the bench, the Panthers started to look a better attacking side. His presence was felt immediately with a dangerous dart out of dummy-half in the first few minutes of his time on the field. It will take some time for Ivan Cleary to work out the right rotation for Kenny and Luke and they've probably come out of Friday nights match noting that Luke will need to come into the game earlier than he did against the Broncos.
On the brightside, their defence was excellent as we've come to expect, completing 90.6 per cent of their tackles for the match. The Broncos managed to score two tries in quick succession early in the first half but the opportunities were scarce after that. The Panthers defence will be a key for them restricting the potent Rabbitohs' attack on Thursday night. Penrith's back five will be crucial in getting them out of their own end and into good yardage positions which they did excellently on Friday night with the back five combing for 914 run metres. So, two crucial parts of their game were sound in the opening fixture, it's just the attacking cohesion that needs discovering, once they do that, they'll be back to their old ways. You can expect them to be fired up for this outing as they one, want to put their first win on the board and two, want to keep the wood over the Rabbitohs' after eliminating them in each of the last three finals series. After their loss last weekend, the Panthers have been required to make one change with the omission of Scott Sorenson to concussion who is replaced by Matt Eisenhuth.
Contrary to Penrith, the Rabbitohs' started the season with a comprehensive win in their opening fixture in Cronulla. It was tied heading into the break, but the Rabbitohs came out firing in the second half, winning that term of football 15 points to six. They were cohesive and dangerous in attack, breaking 52 tackles and were able to move the ball down the field with relative ease. Halfback Lachlan Ilias was excellent for the Rabbitohs as he opened the scoring for the home side, assisted one later on and saved a certain try for good measure. The 22-year-old looked extremely confident, and he's got a big test ahead of him this Thursday against the reigning premiers. Ilias' link up play with Walker will be key for the Rabbitohs as they're going to have to create some Penrith defensive errors if they're to put some scoreboard pressure on the Panthers.
Hopefully Souths' will have their full 17 players available for the entire match, unlike Saturday night where the played the final 60 minutes with 15 players after losing Tevita Tatola and Jai Arrow to injury in the first half. Losing two players that early against a Penrith side might make the going tough but let's hope that this isn't the case on Thursday night. Despite the lack of bench players, The Rabbitohs' defence was excellent for most of the game, making 91.4 per cent of their tackles, something that they'll need to replicate again this weekend if they're to continue their unbeaten start to the season.
The aforementioned injuries to Tatola and Arrow have ruled them out this week with Daniel Suluka Fifta starting at prop and Jed Cartwright joining the pine.
Last meeting: Finals Week 3 2022 - Panthers 32 Rabbitohs 12
Who to watch: This game has plenty of players to keep an eye out for as many of them have the ability to influence the result of this game. It's hard not to mention Nathan Cleary who will be extremely sour after their performance in round one and will be determined to deliver a win in front of their home crowd this Thursday. Cleary missed Koroisau's presence last week and Brisbane's defence did a good job at containing his ball playing, however, the halfback still threatened with his ball running and he'll be expecting to influence the game more than he did last week. One of his dummy-halves, Soni Luke is one to watch this week as he was explosive in his 26-minute stint against the Broncos, scoring a try, running for 65 metres, breaking the line once and making 13 tackles. His sleight of hand out of dummy-half will be key this weekend if they're to perturb Souths' middle defence.
Lachlan Ilias is another to keep an eye on this weekend, it'll be interesting to see whether he can back up his round one performance as the halfback seems destined to have a breakout year but it's fullback Latrell Mitchell who'll draw the most attention from Penrith's defence. Mitchell carried the ball for 127 metres on the weekend, assisted a try and broke four tackles as he kicked off 2023 with a bang. One player who benefited from the ball-playing of Mitchell on the weekend was Campbell Graham who fresh off a winning World Cup campaign, grabbed a double to kick of his season. The 23-year-old centre was damaging with his three line breaks, 198 metres (60 of those after contact), five tackle breaks and 19 tackles. If Souths' can give Mitchell and Graham time and space on that right edge, it could cause some headaches for Penrith's opposing edge.
The favourite: Despite their loss in round one, the Panthers are still the slight favourites. It took a great performance from the Broncos to get the two points and given the track record between these two sides, the Rabbitohs will need to do the same to secure the win. Panthers losing two in a row at home? It could happen, but they'll be incredibly determined to make sure it doesn't come to fruition.
My tip: This should be a cracking match, with the Panthers being brought down a peg, the two teams are incredibly even. I think Penrith are going to sneak home here but that depends on a better attacking performance than last week. The Bunnies will throw everything at the defending premiers and they want revenge from their last outing. It should be a cracker. Penrith by 1.
