Peter Wallace’s hopes of NSW selection suffered a blow as Penrith came back from the dead for a second week in a row to overrun the Newcastle Knights 30-20 at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.
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Wallace, who is widely tipped to oust Robbie Farah for the Blues No.9 jumper, left the field in the eighth minute with a groin injury.
The Panthers trailed 12-0 at the time of his departure.
The Knights extended the gap to 14-0 at the break.
The visitors were woeful in the first half, but like they did they did when trailing the Warriors 28-6 the week before, again they found a way back.
With Trent Merrin and James Tamou leading the way, the Panthers crossed for five tries in the second half to blow the Knights away.
Merrin carted the ball 210 metres and offloaded a pass for Matt Moylan to open the Panthers' account.
The Knights were their own worst enemy in the second half and produced a series of dropped ball and poor options.
Penrith had 70 per cent of possession in the second half and simply wore out the Knights.
The Knights suffered a late change to the forward rotation after prop Josh Starling aggravated a hand injury in the warm-up.
Jack Stockwell started and Josh King, who was 18th man, came onto the bench.
Energised from their 34-20 win over the Raiders last round, the Knights produced their best start of the season.
Daniel Saifiti (93m) and Jock Stockwell (40m) bent the defensive line and Sione Mata'utia caused problems running angles back inside.
But when the Panthers lost Wallace, they lacked direction.
Brock Lamb opened the Knights' account when he collected a pass popped off the ground by Jaelen Feeney in the fourth minute.
Five minutes later Saifiti crashed over beside the post after Dany Levi sucked in two defenders.
Lamb landed both conversions.
Both sides were guilty of sloppy handling and pushed passes midway through the half.
But throughout, the Knights defence remained strong.
