RAIN continued to dampened the mood of the Bathurst Panthers under 18s as they went down to Lithgow Workies 32-12 on Sunday at Carrington Park.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The match got off to the worst possible start for the Panthers when the wet conditions helped the Workies kick-off go deep into the Bathurst in-goal, forcing a goal-line drop out.
Workies punished the Panthers when Darcy Allen took several defenders over the line with him to get the visitors four points clear.
After three successive Panthers errors the visitors finally crossed on the nine-minute mark through Trent Lane.
The problems continued for the Panthers when their following kick-off sailed out on the full and two sets later Workies hooker Wade Egan strolled over for a soft try under the posts.
At 16-0 up, and with 10 minutes left in the first half, Egan made a break out of his own half with a 50m run. Several tackles later a short-side play saw the Panthers overlapped and Liam Wilson went over in the corner.
Panthers then gave away a penalty for a shoulder charge and on the back of it Nick Kenniff crashed over from close range to make it 26-0 after just 30 minutes.
It didn’t get much better after the break for Bathurst when Joel Gurney slipped through some average defence to run more than 80 metres and score.
But four minutes later the home crowd finally had something to celebrate when prop Rhys Potter scored. A successful conversion took the tally to 32-6.
The remainder of the half was a scrappy affair with both teams letting more errors and ill discipline creep into their game.
Panthers enjoyed their best run of possession when Workies’ Wilson was sent to the sin bin with 15 minutes remaining.
A consolation try came for Callum Young while Workies were short. Tyler Horton booted the conversion to put the final score at 32-12.
The defeat means the Panthers only boast two wins from five games this season.
Panthers’ team manager Stuart Ward said his team wrote themselves out of the contest with their poor attack.
“We definitely made too many mistakes in the first half. The game was basically over at half-time at 26-0. The boys hung in there for the second half though,” he said.
“We’ve got to string a couple of back-to-back wins together.
“That was a big game today and a chance for third and we missed the opportunity so we’ve got to win that next couple,” he said.
LITHGOW WORKIES 32 defeated BATHURST PANTHERS 12