PENRITH'S winning record at home for the 2014 season was shattered in their 18-2 loss to South Sydney on Friday night.
The clash was always going to be a battle of the forwards with Souths' Burgess Brothers up against Penrith's Bash Brothers. There had been plenty of hype through the week about big hitters and fans were there to see the best of the best.
Ivan Cleary made a couple of changes before kick-off, with Brent Kite returning from injury and starting at prop to give Nigel Plum a bit of a rest. That saw Sam Mckendry drop back to the bench along with Sika Manu, while Lewis Brown was promoted to the starting side.
Right on cue, the rain started to bucket down a few minutes before kick-off, turning the field into a soggy mess and sending hundreds of umbrellas and ponchos exploding into action among the crowd of more than 11,000.
The weather and a clumsy penalty right in front of the posts didn't get the Panthers off to the best start. Seven minutes into the match, Souths put a kick through the uprights for the first points of the game.
In the next play Jamie Soward was placed on report for a hit on Nathan Merritt that saw him hit the deck.
Panthers came agonisingly close to scoring 15 minutes in, when Jamal Idris got the ball and drove hard at the line before being tackled a few millimetres from the line. That seemed to reinvigorate Penrith and for the next few sets, they kept the ball up their end and hammered away at the line. But the rain was creating havoc with the ball play and both sides were having trouble hanging onto anything for more than a couple of passes.
With 12 minutes until half-time, back to back penalties against Souths got Penrith up to their 10-metre line and then a misguided kick from a goal line drop out gave the home side the chance to even the score. Soward took the kick from in front, and the score went to 2-2.
For the remaining few minutes of the half the Panthers dominated possession and let Souths get near their line just the once.
HALF TIME: 2-2
Souths came out firing in the second half and took full advantage of a couple of poor decisions by the Panthers in the opening minutes. A goal line dropout handed them back to back sets and caught the Panthers defenders off guard along the right side. The ball found debutant Kirisome Auva'a in some space and he ran over the top of a couple of Panthers and rolled over the line to score. The kick was waved away so the Bunnies took a 6-2 lead, with 45 minutes down.
It was at this point that the Rabbitohs kicked into gear and stepped their game up a few notches. They dominated possession for the next 10 minutes before getting their second try. After drawing defenders in on the right side, a quick ball out to Nathan Merritt saw him step around Josh Mansour and over the line in the corner. This time the conversion was on target and South Sydney extended their lead to 12-2.
Over the next 15 minutes Penrith had several attempts at scoring but ball fumbles cost us the points on at least three occasions. Souths were better on defence and attack and it wasn't long before another Panthers mistake handed them their next try.
The Bunnies put a high ball up to the right side of the field, where Josh Mansour went for it but missed, and the ball bounced back to Greg Inglis who offloaded to Kyle Turner in some space, and he ran the ball over the line. The kick from in front was good, and with seven minutes on the clock, Souths took an 18-2 lead.
The rest of the game was played out up our end as we desperately tried to put more points on the board, but the Souths defence was impenetrable.
FULL-TIME: 18-2 Souths
