‘It’s hard with new combinations’

Time is running out for Penrith to reassert their status as the NRL’s best defensive team this season, the triple reigning premiers admitting themselves they are leaking too many points.

Since 2020, Ivan Cleary’s Panthers have parlayed water-tight defence into a level of premiership success unprecedented in the NRL era.

The 286 points they conceded across the 2021 regular season was the fewest by any team under the salary cap in a 24-round campaign post-Super League War.

The Panthers have also been the best defensive team in the two years since, both of which ended in premierships, and were leaders for the 2020 campaign.

But led by ex-Penrith assistant coach Cameron Ciraldo, Canterbury have conceded 15 fewer points than the Panthers with two rounds to play in the regular season.

The Panthers are only behind the Bulldogs in this statistic, but have conceded more than 20 points in nine games this season, as many as in the previous two campaigns combined.

Penrith are currently on a three-game run of leaking more than 20 points in games for the first time since 2019.

“We’ve probably conceded too many points for probably nearly the whole season this year, compared to what we’d like to,” said prop Lindsay Smith.

“We’ve got the desire and the right systems in place, it’s just about getting back to that footy.”

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Continuous changes to Penrith’s line-up have not helped.

Smith is the only Panthers player to have featured in every game this season, with Nathan Cleary, Dylan Edwards, James Fisher-Harris and Scott Sorensen among those sidelined through injury.

Edwards, Liam Martin, Isaah Yeo, Brian To’o and Jarome Luai have also missed time through State of Origin duty, though that is hardly a new problem at Penrith.

The changes will continue against South Sydney this Friday when Paul Alamoti returns from injury to the centres and Sunia Turuva earns a recall on the wing.

“It’s hard with new combinations but that’s obviously no excuse,” said centre Izack Tago.

“There have been bigger scorelines. It’s definitely a case of working on defence.

“It’s still something we definitely pride ourselves on and try and look to improve.”

The Panthers leaked all four of their tries down their edges against Canberra last week and are committed to righting the ship in the fortnight before finals.

“We’re definitely conceding more points than we’d like,” said second-rower Luke Garner.

“We’ll continue to work hard on it this week and hopefully keep the Rabbitohs to nil on Friday.”

© AAP