Cronulla have produced their most polished performance of the season to down Penrith 26-22 on Sunday.
Without captain Paul Gallen and Wade Graham through knee and hamstring injuries respectively, the Sharks had to dig deep after losing Luke Lewis to a calf strain inside the opening 13 minutes, with Joseph Paulo and Kurt Capewell also undergoing head injury assessments.
Lewis was unlikely to play earlier in the week after suffering a corked knee against St George Illawarra, with Andrew Fifita also making a miraculous recovery from what had appeared might be a season-ending knee injury to start for Cronulla.
Cronulla’s stars stepped up, with the excellent Josh Dugan laying on two tries and showing why he has be given the No.1 jersey with a strong performance. Matt Moylan and Chad Townsend won the battle of the halves against former Shark James Maloney on his first return to Shark Park as a Panther.
Maloney, who helped Cronulla break their 50-year premiership drought in his first season with the club in 2016, was given a hostile reception in the shire with Sharks fans booing the Panthers five-eighth.
Valentine Holmes opened the scoring inside six minutes thanks to Dugan’s quick thinking, with the fullback putting in an early grubber kick after seeing Penrith’s defensive line rush up for Holmes to race through and touch down.
Cronulla could have doubled their lead five minutes later only for the video referee to chalk off a try to Jayden Brailey. Moylan chased his own kick into the in-goal area and stripped the ball from Penrith winger Christian Crichton.
Brailey grounded the loose ball only for match officials to rule Moylan had pulled the ball forward into Crichton’s leg. Crichton was having an unhappy start to the match, making an error in the play the ball to gift the Sharks possession in front of Penrith’s posts.
Cronulla couldn’t make Penrith pay and were to suffer a double injury blow. Lewis limped off after 13 minutes while Paulo went for a head injury assessment shortly after he had attempted to tackle a rampaging Reagan Campbell-Gillard, with the giant Panthers prop off the long run returning a goal line dropout.
Penrith finally hit back after a spell of possession midway through the half when a shift to the left saw Dallin Watene-Zelezniak score in the corner.
The Panthers had their own try taken away by the video referee soon after when Campbell-Gillard looked to have made the most of Moylan’s failed attempt to field a Maloney cross field kick, only for Tyrone Peachey to have been ruled to knock on.
The Sharks wrestled back the lead on the half hour mark through the try of the match. Scott Sorensen, in for his first appearance in the black, white and blue in two years and just sixth NRL game overall, produced a superb slaloming solo effort to score his first NRL try.
It didn’t take Cronulla long to extend their 10-6 lead after half-time. Dugan again provided the spark, launching a lightning counter attack from a kick return deep inside Cronulla’s half that ended with Edrick Lee tackled 10 metres from Penrith’s line.
The Sharks then went right and put on a set play for Brailey to send Jesse Ramien back through the ruck to score.
Townsend extended the lead to 18-6 with a penalty goal on 50 minutes but Penrith weren’t done, hitting back with a try to Dylan Edwards with the fullback scoring under the posts from a Sione Katoa grubber kick out of dummy half.
Penrith smelt blood and surged only for Cronulla to defend a number of repeat sets desperately. They were rewarded with what turned out to be the match-winning try 12 minutes from full-time.
James Segeyaro, back in the squad after missing a week with concussion, put a grubber into the in-goal. He and Ramien will be left to debate whose try it was as they appeared to almost ground the ball simultaneously.
Townsend sealed the result with a penalty goal when Moylan was tackled late after a kick before Isaah Yeo scored what appeared to be a late consolation for Penrith. Only for the Panthers to score again through Viliame Kikau to give Cronulla an unnecessarily nervy finish.
Leader Scoreboard
Cronulla Sharks 26 (Valentine Holmes, Scott Sorensen, Jesse Ramien, James Segeyaro tries. Chad Townsend five goals)
defeated
Penrith Panthers 22 (Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Dylan Edwards, Isaah Yeo, Viliame Kikau tries. James Maloney three goals)
at Southern Cross Group Stadium, Woolooware
Crowd: 12,677
Leader man of the match: Josh Dugan (Sharks)
Sharks’ next three: Titans (away), Eels (home), Raiders (away)