Penrith is now in full-blown crisis with Wests Tigers handing them a 30-0 thrashing and extending their horror losing streak at Centrebet Stadium.
In front of a sensational crowd of more than 15,500, the Panthers offered little in attack as they failed to score a point for the second consecutive week.
In fact, the Panthers now haven’t scored a try in 180 minutes of football, with their last four-pointer coming to Lachlan Coote in the 60th minute of their loss to Cronulla.
Despite losing Robbie Farah in the 13th minute to concussion, the Tigers took their chances against a Penrith side that was again ill-disciplined and lacked creativity throughout the contest.
The Panthers too had injury worries, with Travis Burns taken from the field in the first half, but even the energetic Burns wouldn’t have helped the Panthers today.
Wests opened the scoring in the fifth minute when big Adam Blair went through a huge gap in Penrith’s right-hand defence.
Penrith should have leveled soon after, but David Simmons didn’t have the speed after Luke Lewis put him into the clear.
It was the Tigers who scored next when Tim Moltzen crossed, and soon after Ray Cashmere crossed to set up an 18-0 half-time lead.
Penrith’s attack looked no better in the second half, and ill-discipline again reared its head – Matt Robinson was placed on report while in possession of the football for leading with an elbow.
The Panthers should have been back in the game with around 20 minutes to go, but with the line in front of him, youngster Blake Austin somehow tripped and didn’t score what seemed to be a certain four-pointer.
Instead, it was the Tigers who scored next, wrapping up the win with a try 17 minutes from time that gave them a 24-0 lead.
The Tigers scored again late when Penrith failed to shut down a poor last play, ultimately creating broken field and allowing the final try of the day to be scored.
With a week off next week, Penrith face plenty of soul-searching if they are to turn around a season that is going from bad to worse.
