George Watt

50 mins. Tago in after Gagai fails to deal with a 5th tackle bomb. Crichton converts. 18-6. 56 mins. Hoy in at corner and converted by Clifford. 18-12. 58 mins Tago in for second after a Mann grubber. Crichton converts. 24-12. 60 mins. Clifford kick off too long and Penrith straight in at the corner from the restart with a try by Crighton. 28- 12. 65 mins. Best in for the Knights in the corner. Unconverted. 28-16. 72 mins. Tuala in the corner for the Knights. Unconverted. 28-20. 78 mins. May in for No.3 in the corner. Unconverted. 32-20. 79 mins. Staines in at the corner. Crighton converts. 38-20. FT. Penrith 38- Newcastle 20. With only 12 men and playing against a wind in the second half Newcastle put up a good fight. Penrith did enough to win but were far from convincing.

9 mins . May in for Penrith at the corner after Luai grubber. Unconverted. 4-0. 20 mins. Young in for Knights at the corner after Mann knock on. Clifford converts. 4-6. 33 mins. Barnett sent off after late elbow on Smith's jaw. Crighton kicks penalty. 6-6. 38 mins. May in for No2 after Tago grubber to corner. Crighton converts. 12-6. Half Time. Penrith 12- Knights 6.

Usually go to this match but the rain has made the road journey slow out west so will watch on TV. Penrith heavily favoured in the betting.

I have warmed to Ashley since he gave 3 penalties for blatant 'roll the ball' PTB offences in the first round. The other refs haven't the guts to follow suit. Over a dozen in the first match today and at least half a dozen in this match without sanction.

Agree he had a great game. Tedesco has began the new season with a predictable stat. PTB's numerous- number of times his foot touches the ball ..... none!

Newcastle growing in confidence as the half progressed. An error-athon from Easts sums up their first half effort but as reported earlier were unlucky to have the Tedesco try disallowed. Under new rules the bunker has a doctor who can review on field play and has the authority to rule out a player for the rest of a the game following a head knock. Hence the Radley decision.

In the Souths game Ashley Klein gave 3 penalties for PTB breaches- all for rolling the ball through the legs without any attempt to use a foot. Hope this is not a first round crackdown which is subsequently discontinued!

I'm at the first match next Thursday night G. for Penrith v Manly. The Penrith area has seen massive downfalls of rain for the past week with more due rain every day until matchday when the forecast is for a sunny day and 23C. Cannot wait!

PTBs in the men's game hgg are becoming increasingly sloppy and being condoned by referees. In the women's game here PTBs are enacted to the rules on almost every occasion. Why the men cannot emulate the women in this area is a question to be asked.

Yet next Saturday March 5th the SKY TV match scheduled is Toulouse V Wigan?

First met Norman Collier when he was on the Hull Club scene in the 50's/60's. My dad was too and occasionally was on the same show. A really funny guy and lovely to know! As for the match, my earlier comment was that they would be too loose up the middle and Levi really exploited their weakness there.

Toulouse to lose by being too loose down the middle.

I hope if is still in the room it gets off more lightly than Kurt Zouma's cat!!

If he leaves the field injured it counts as an interchange. If he leaves the field due to the incident being placed on report it is a free interchange. Useless trivia. The first RL match I attended as a kid was HKR v Wigan in the late 40's at the old Craven Park. From the commentators side I could see the lights of houses in the street where I lived from age 2 - 21.

One player in SL who plays the ball correctly every time is Welsby. Tonight Hopoate was also faultless in this area. One of these days I will see Walmsley at least attempt to touch the ball with his foot!

Thanks for the correction. I was in London in 1960 as a student and left there for my first job in Lancaster until I returned to London in 1963 to work there until I left the UK in 1966. Memory let me down I am afraid- should have checked!

I have a few memories of Johnny Raper. First saw him play in the first Ashes test played at Wembley in 1960 in a mid-week game under lights where the Aussies hammered us, with his St George team mates Gasnier and Langlands prominent alongside of him. Watched him play during his last season for St George in 1969 after I arrived in Aus. the previous year and then met up with him personally when he coached Cronulla for a couple of seasons in the mid 70's. Raper was the best cover tackling lock forward I have ever seen in over 75 years of watching the game. RIP Johnny.

The new owner has bought the soccer club and the Stadium Management Company(SMC). The council continue to own the stadium and when the stadium was built in 2002 gave SMC a 50 year lease. The new owner will carry on with that lease. Hull FC in 2002 signed a 25 years lease to use the stadium which will finish in 2027. They can then go down the route of building their own ground if they so choose. Hull FC problems were due to a toxic relationship developing between the respective owners and led to the Hull owner speculating about moving away from the MKM stadium. Talks have yet to commence between the 2 owners on any unresolved problems due to shared occupancy of the stadium.

The new stadium to be built at Penrith by season 2025 is tipped to blow other RL grounds out of the water! Unfortunately I will have permanently moved far away from the area by then so will never experience being there.

Penrith Panther Apisai Koroisau departs for Wests in season 2023.

Think you need to re-visit the sentence 3 from the top G!

Was having lunch at the Penrith Leagues club yesterday and there on an adjacent table as part of a player reunion was a group of 6 ex-Penrith players all kitted out in their old Penrith gear. Among them Tim Sheens, Royce Simmons and the current Penrith recruitment manager Jim Jones. Had a little 5 minute chat with the group and Jones indicated that Penrith were having trouble keeping below their forward salary cap and Kikau was an obvious casualty. He was not overly ambitious about how they would go in 2022 saying a top 6 position would be satisfactory and for the future would be relying on their own youth pathways with one or two country signings. I kicked off the initial conversation by saying that the first Penrith match I watched marked the home debut of Stevo and Bill Ashurst which sparked Sheens into life as he talked about them and other UK players. I asked him who he rated as the best English forward to come out to Aus and without hesitation he nominated Mal Reilly.

Some goods points there Harry but who would I select to coach my individuals team? Perhaps someone who played or been good enough to play at international level.Maybe someone who has played in an Ashes series win and then gone on to coach an Ashes series win. Or how about someone who had played with, mentored and coached the player that had the aforementioned Ashes winning double? My coach would be British, ambitious,strong on personal management, highly innovative and possibly had experienced adversity in his life. Also he would have played and coached for a club side and taken them from lower mid-table to multiple league champions and CC finals within a decade of starting at the club. Any ideas?