Cleary shines, Penrith extend NRL streak

Nathan Cleary put on a masterclass to finish Magic Round, helping Penrith demolish a lacklustre and undermanned Gold Coast side 48-12 at Suncorp Stadium.

Teammates celebrate a Nathan Cleary try. Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

With Herman Ese’ese sent off and the Titans reduced to 12 men for the second half, Cleary scored hat-trick and finished with 28 points for the match.

The Penrith halfback scored the opening two tries and set up three more, before finishing the game by bumping through four Titans to claim his third.

It came as the Panthers dominated the Titans in every facet, warming up for next Sunday’s mega clash with South Sydney in Dubbo.

The result also made Penrith the first team since Eastern Suburbs in 1996 to win their opening 10 games, and just the seventh in history.

And while Ese’ese became the third man to be sent off this weekend when he charged out of the line and collected Brian To’o’s head, it made little difference.

In fact, the game was best summed up during a brief period in the first half when the Panthers were down a man thanks to having Moses Leota in the sin-bin.

The Titans looked set to benefit and level the scores when Phillip Sami crossed, only for the try to be denied when Beau Fermor ran through and took out Cleary.

Love the NRL? Australian users can personalise their ESPN experience by downloading the App. Get live scores, news and videos ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.

• Download ESPN from Google Play Store• Download ESPN from iTunes App Store• Get NRL news and more in your inbox• Head to ESPN’s Home of Rugby League• Review: 2020 Rugby League season

DOWNLOAD

Instead, Cleary kicked for touch, followed through to finish a bust and backed up at first receiver to step his way over the line to make it 12-0.

Moments later Cleary turned the ball back inside for a charging Fisher-Harris to run over Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Tyrone Peachey.

On returning to the field Leota almost immediately finished off a wonderful 90-metre effort after a break from fullback Dylan Edwards.

By then the score was 24-0 and the game was over.

Cleary also set up tries for Liam Martin and Charlie Staines, with the latter coming from a lovely harbour-bridge ball to get the winger over untouched.

The result means the Panthers have an aggregate score of 96-12 in the past two rounds, after annihilating Cronulla last week.

The Titans were woeful.

They missed 35 tackles with 70 per cent of the game played on their line, as their points conceded column went to 188 in the past five rounds.

Their two tries came in the last 13 minutes, when Beau Fermor scored their first and then made a break to put AJ Brimson over.

It left them out of the top eight for the first time since round three.