Soward wants Penrith to be more ruthless

Penrith five-eighth Jamie Soward has warned his teammates they will have little success in this NRL season unless they learn how to kill teams off.

The Panthers dominated proceedings against Canterbury at Pepper Stadium only for the Bulldogs to run in 18 unanswered points in the final 11 minutes as the Panthers squeaked home 24-18 on a roasting hot Sunday afternoon in western Sydney.

“The last 20 minutes from us was pretty ordinary,” Soward told AAP.

“I am very happy with our forward pack, they were well in control, but collectively as a team we struggled to finish the game game off.

“You watch Souths, Parra and all the teams that won over the weekend, they were ruthless and we need to get better at doing that otherwise we are not going to do anything this season.”

Bulldogs halfback Trent Hodkinson said the spirited finish from his side was some consolation for a poor first half.

“It was ugly, we spoke before the game about scrapping the unforced errors,” Hodkinson told AAP.

“We had 31 per cent possession in the first half and you do that against a side like Penrith you’ll struggle.

“But it’s early in the season and we showed what we can do in the final 10 minutes. We just need to be better.”

Saturday saw a highly-touted North Queensland side ruthlessly brushed aside by an impressive Sydney Roosters 28-4.

With new skipper Mitchell Pearce in outstanding form, the 2013 premiers exorcised the memories of their 42-12 loss in Townsville last year.

The performance of the Cowboys led to coach Paul Green accusing his players of believing their own hype.

“Everyone starts to fall in love with themselves a little bit,” Green said.

“Believe the headlines. It’s a bit of a, not a wake up call … but it was a good lesson on where good teams are and how tough they play.”

The Warriors once again showed their fallibility outside of Auckland with a disappointing 24-14 defeat to Newcastle at Hunter Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Andrew McFadden’s side lost all five of their matches in NSW last year and have not tasted victory in Sydney since beating Wests Tigers in round 19 of 2013 at Leichhardt Oval.

Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor opened his reign at the joint-venture with a nail-biting 19-18 win over the Gold Coast Titans on Saturday.

A field goal on the siren from Pat Richards sealed the two points to deny a gutsy Titans team who were missing key men Beau Falloon, Greg Bird and Dave Taylor who have been implicated in the cocaine scandal that has engulfed the club.

Parramatta scored 36 or more points in round one for the third successive season after putting bitter rivals Manly to the sword 42-12 at Pirtek Stadium on Friday.

A hat-trick of tries from Semi Radradra and a brace from Chris Sandow laid the foundations for a big win for the Eels on a night to forget for the Sea Eagles who also learned Daly Cherry-Evans signed for the Gold Coast after the game.

South Sydney sent an ominous warning to rest of the NRL that they remain the team to beat with an impressive 36-6 win at Brisbane in the season opener on Thursday night.

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