Panthers 34
Sharks 14
Michael Jennings gave New South Wales selectors a timely reminder of his talents with a hat-trick of tries as a Lachlan Coote-inspired Penrith beat Cronulla in last night's NRL clash at Toyota Stadium.
The 22-year-old centre, who was overlooked by test selectors for last week's clash with New Zealand and picked on the wing for City against Country, took advantage of some feeble Sharks defending to produce his best performance of the season.
But it was diminutive fullback Coote who was the star of the show for Penrith, consolidating their top-four spot.
The Sharks took the lead with less than a minute on the clock when Tim Smith slotted home a penalty.
But the Panthers hit back when Shane Elford picked off a wayward Smith pass and raced 75m to score under the posts.
The home side continued to show plenty of encouragement in attack and Smith atoned for his earlier error with a swift cut-out pass into the arms of debutant fullback Nathan Gardner who barged his way over the line.
Smith's conversion restored the Sharks' lead but Penrith finished the opening stanza stronger, scoring three unanswered tries with Coote playing a starring role in all of them.
Jennings opened his account in the 21st minute when he crept up on the outside of a dithering Grant Millington to get a hand to Coote's grubber-kick into the in-goal area.
Coote was in the thick of the action again for the Panthers' third try, to leap above Blake Ferguson and grab Luke Walsh's kick, before offloading to Adrian Purtell, who released Elford for his second try on the half-hour mark.
Five minutes later the home crowd were left fuming when a forward-looking pass from Coote went unpunished and Jennings touched down for his second of the game, with Michael Gordon's kick giving Penrith a 22-8 lead at the break.
In the second half Jennings grabbed his third, brushing aside the challenge of Smith after Coote had found touch with a sweetly-struck 40/20.
Gordon's kick stretched the advantage to 28-8, but Cronulla fought back, although they only had Dean Collis' try to show for their efforts.
In the final minute Penrith added gloss to the scoreline when Masada Iosefa dived over from close range with Gordon adding the extras.
- AAP
