“Not even I know how Penrith escaped that!” – Harry Houdini

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Parramatta Eels v Penrith Panthers

With 7 minutes remaining in the Panthers game against the Eels, Penrith trailed 34-20. Just 4 minutes later, they had a 2 point lead and went on to win the match.

 Penrith and the Eels went tit-for-tat for much of the first half, but the Panthers were well below their best for the opening 20 minutes of the second half, before they seemingly decided to start playing elite footy to secure an unbelievable victory.

Parramatta forced a turn-over on the Panther's very first run with the ball and two plays later, they went left to Blaize Talagi who juggles a pass before scoring in the corner. Clint Gutherson converted and after 3 minutes, the Eels had a 6-0 lead.

Penrith hit back in the 6th minute with some crisp drawing and passing which creates an overlap leading to Brian To'o crossing in the right corner. Nathan Cleary landed the sideline conversion.

In the 10th minute, Parramatta went back to Panthers left edge, leading to Jake Tago scoring in the left corner. Gutherson's sideline conversion was again good.

Two minutes later, Cleary put in a deft grubber which bounced up perfectly for Izack Tago, who regathered and dived over to score a clever try. Cleary's sideline conversion levelled the scores again.

Cleary kicked a penalty goal in the 26th minute to give Penrith a 2 point lead. Then with 5 minutes remaining til halftime, the Eels created an overlap on the right side, allowing Sean Russell to slide over to score in the corner. Gutherson failed to convert and at halftime, Parramatta held a narrow 16-14 lead.

The Panthers opened the second half playing a combination of sloppy, panicked and ill-disciplined football. This allowed the Eels to pull away on the scoreboard. In the 47th minute, Jarome Luai fielded a kick in his own in-goal, got back into the field of play, grounding the ball in the field of play in a 2 man tackle, but the ball bounced out of his hand and rolled back into the Panthers in-goal where Viliami Penisini put his hand on the loose ball to score. Gutherson converted.

After a silly Panthers penalty just 4 minutes later, Parramatta crossed again when Russell was sent down the right short-side, but was met in a great tackle, however he got a brilliant ball back inside to Gutherson who simply caught it and then placed the ball down over the tryline that was just in front of him. He failed to convert his own try.

In the 60th minute, Liam Martin clipped the leg of Daejarn Asi after the Eels half had kicked the ball. Martin was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. Gutherson kicked a penalty goal. It seemed this was going to be the nail in the coffin for the Panthers, who were not only playing poorly, but were now down a man and 14 points behind on the scoreboard. 

But this is a champion team.

4 minutes after Martin was binned, Cleary and Luai combined to create an overlap and Suynia Turuva slid over to score in the left corner. Cleary converted.

Parramatta hit back 3 minutes later when Asi put Shaun Lane into space. He then drew Laurie before passing to Gutherson in support who raced away to score. He then converted his own try. Martin returned to the field with 9 minutes remaining and the Panthers trailing 34-20.

In the 73rd minute, Brian To'o shrugged off a weak tackle and then stepped through two even worse tackle efforts before running 10 metres to score a great solo try. Cleary converted.

90 seconds later, a Panthers attacking kick fell back into Penrith's hands just 10 metres from the Eels line. It was sent out to Cleary who fired a beautiful long ball to Turuva who dived low to score in the corner. Cleary failed to convert from the sideline.

From the restart, Penrith made it clear they were going to throw the ball around. On the second tackle and deep inside their own half, Laurie made a break then linked with Tago, who got tackled, but the defender fell off. Tago got back up and planted the ball down for a spectacular 70 metre try. Cleary converted from the sideline to give Penrith a 36-34 victory.