‘It was a balls-up’: Panthers facing sanction after interchange bungle in win over Roosters

Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has described an interchange bungle that briefly resulted in his side fielding 14 men as a “balls-up” after a win over the Roosters that kept their premiership defence alive.

On a night when Nathan Cleary surpassed Ryan Girdler’s record to become the club’s highest point-scorer, Penrith snapped a five-game losing streak at Allianz Stadium.

It was a performance that will send a shudder through their opponents, who had hoped a dynasty may have come to an end. However, the victory didn’t come without controversy and will likely result in a fine from head office.

The NRL will investigate an interchange bungle that resulted in the Panthers momentarily fielding 14 men. The incident occurred in the 32nd minute, when Scott Sorensen came close to the sideline – without coming from the field – to have a dislocated finger put back into place.

As that was occurring, super-sub Izack Tago momentarily came onto the field, realised the error and immediately came back off. The bungle resulted in the Panthers being docked two interchange cards.

“It was a mistake,” Ivan Cleary said.

“Soz had a dislocated finger and we thought it must have been broken. He ran to the sideline and Izack, who has never been on the bench before, I don’t think he really knew what to do, so he didn’t give his card to someone.

“It was the old trick; ‘I’ve just got to go on, so I’ll throw it on the ground.’

“It was a rookie error, he’d actually never been on the bench in his life. To be honest with you, I’d never really thought of that.

“It was a balls-up. It cost us two interchanges. We paid for it.”

Tago belatedly entered the fray to replace Luke Garner, who failed a head-injury assessment.

The NRL has the power to dock competition points over interchange breaches, but is likely to issue a fine in this instance as play was not affected.

Sorensen played on despite the injury and was involved in one of the highlights of the evening, a superb flick pass to Dylan Edwards, who scored the try that sealed the result.

There were other moments that deserve to be replayed often over the Easter long weekend. Like the brilliant Roosters scrum play, orchestrated by NSW utility Connor Watson, that resulted in Robert Toia streaming past a befuddled Penrith defence.

There was also a sublime Mark Nawaqanitawase flick pass that resulted in the opening try.

However, the most memorable moments belonged to the Panthers.

Paul Alamoti scored two almost identical tries in the first half, but it was in the second that the Panthers began playing something resembling their best football.

Nathan Cleary, meanwhile played down suggestions he was on track to break Cameron Smith’s all-time point-scoring record of 2,786.

“That’s pretty far away,” the Panthers No.7 said.

“They’re little things you can tick off along the way, it’s pretty cool. The more important journey was getting a win, getting back on track and feeling like ourselves again. Happy with both, I guess.”

A shudder just went through the NRL competition.

When the Roosters led early, it seemed the Penrith dynasty may have finally ended.

Perhaps, after four years of total domination, it was somebody else’s turn to lift the premiership?

But after a scrappy start, to both this game and their season, normal service has resumed.

The Panthers played themselves back into form and turned what was a close contest into a total blowout.

After registering just their second win of the season, Ivan Cleary’s men have given the frontrunners a sizable head-start.

However, this resembled something akin to their best football over the last 25 minutes and the rest of the competition is now on notice.