{"id":853797,"date":"2026-08-13T13:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T13:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853797\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T13:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T13:08:12","slug":"nrl-live-updates-penrith-panthers-face-sydney-roosters-at-commbank-stadium-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853797\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL live updates: Penrith Panthers face Sydney Roosters at CommBank Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penrith 6 Sydney Roosters 12<\/p>\n

Grand final previews do not come much better than what we all saw on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The Penrith Panthers and Sydney Roosters blockbuster did not disappoint.<\/p>\n

In one of the best defensive games of the season, the Daly Cherry-Evans-inspired Roosters triumphed 12-6.<\/p>\n

In terms of quality, the Panthers and Warriors clash at the same western Sydney venue in round 13 was on par.<\/p>\n

Cherry-Evans, at 37 years young, and now outright second for most games \u2013 his 373 tally only trails Cameron Smith\u2019s 430 NRL games \u2013 was brilliant.<\/p>\n

He came up with the first try when he stepped off the right foot and skipped past Isaiah Papali\u2019i and Liam Henry.<\/p>\n

Cherry-Evans appeared to have sealed the game a few minutes out from full-time when he looked to his right and went to pass, but backed himself and burrowed over the line.<\/p>\n

Even then, the Roosters had to survive one last attacking play from Penrith, and the roar and relief from the large number of travelling fans was impressive.<\/p>\n

The Roosters bought Cherry-Evans, a former Manly favourite son, because of his experience and leadership to assist James Tedesco.<\/p>\n

His kicking game was phenomenal, while his calmness under pressure continues to bring the best out of Sam Walker.<\/p>\n

\"DaleyDaley Cherry-Evans scores a late try that won the match for the Roosters.Getty Images<\/p>\n

There was speculation this week Cherry-Evans was weighing up a shock move to Super League club Hull FC.<\/p>\n

He is in good enough form to play on, and in the box seat to win a second premiership to go with the one with the title he won in his debut season in 2011.<\/p>\n

The Roosters will finish the weekend on top of the ladder, with three games remaining against the Wests Tigers, Dolphins and South Sydney.<\/p>\n

The Panthers lost no admirers, and are still to welcome back the star cavalry, including hooker Mitch Kenny and Casey McLean, the strike centre who can blow a game apart out wide. They could have done with McLean\u2019s X-factor against the Roosters.<\/p>\n

Questions will be asked about Penrith going all the way without Isaah Yeo, who is no certainty to return from a pec injury.<\/p>\n

There is no way you can write them off, especially with a fit Nathan Cleary. Dylan Edwards will strip fitter for the run after returning from a shoulder injury, while Yeo\u2019s No. 13 replacement, Lindsay Smith, who set up the only try for Moses Leota, will improve.<\/p>\n

\"RoostersRoosters prop Naufahu\u00a0Whyte makes a typically strong charge.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Blaize Talagai was injected into the game late, with Jack Cogger shifting to hooker. The youngster tried his best to spark his team\u2019s attack, but also came up with a bad pass that Mark Nawaqanitawase intercepted.<\/p>\n

Nawaqanitawase was at the centre of a controversial \u201cdisruptor\u201d call just before half-time, which had TV commentators stumped.<\/p>\n

Nawaqanitawase leapt for a Cherry-Evans kick and tried to swat it back with his right arm and missed. Tom Jenkins dropped the ball and Toia was on the spot to put the ball down.<\/p>\n

But the bunker intervened, penalised Penrith and Izack Tago for escorting Nawaqanitawase off the ball, then took the try off Toia because of Nawaqanitawase\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely outrageous,\u201d Andrew Johns said of the decision, while Nine colleague Phil Gould said: \u201cThat\u2019s a disgraceful call and a disgraceful rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

What a bloody great match. The New Zealand Warriors will be keen to have a say about grand final day, but based on the 80 minutes of good old-fashioned sporting entertainment on Thursday night, a Panthers-Roosters GF would be the ultimate.<\/p>\n

Cherry-Evans versus Cleary. How many more weeks until the first weekend of October?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penrith 6 Sydney Roosters 12 Grand final previews do not come much better than what we all saw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-853797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}