Nathan Cleary appears to have done enough to retain his NSW State of Origin jumper after piloting Penrith to a shaky 16-10 NRL win over Parramatta that broke the Panthers’ six-game losing streak.
While the match was arguably one of the worst of the year, with both sides turning in sloppy and ill-disciplined performances, Cleary stood up when it counted, coming up with two big plays in the second-half to turn the tide.
After the Panthers went into halftime down 10-8, Cleary gave his side field position when he fell on a mis-timed Eels kick to give his side field position.
On the back of that, his halves partner Jarome Luai rolled the ball in-goal and Cleary showed desperation to dive on it to give his side a decisive 16-10 lead.
It is understood that NSW coach Brad Fittler is leaning towards retaining him despite the Panthers’ struggles.
And while his side largely struggled, he didn’t do anything particularly wrong.
The 16,228-strong crowd were served up a low-quality spectacle marred by dropped ball, penalties and school boy errors like getting caught with the ball on the last tackle.
In all there were 28 errors and 16 penalties which prevented the game ever reaching any heights.
And while the standard dropped even further in the second-half, Parramatta were just that much worse, completing just 11 of 20 sets to slump to their third straight loss.
The Eels struck first when Will Smith dabbed in a grubber for Maika Sivo before a penalty stretched out their lead to 8-0.
When Penrith were finally able to build sustained pressure, they reduced the deficit to two through unlikely try-scorer Tim Grant.
While the Panthers were undeniably bad, the win was their first since round four and will ease pressure on coach Ivan Cleary and his side.
Penrith five-eighth Luai will come under scrutiny from the match review committee after clotheslining Mitchell Moses.
Parramatta star Blake Ferguson was put on report for a trip on Waqa Blake, but is likely to escape with a fine.
Ferguson, who was switched to centre, had an uncharacteristic off night, making three handling errors.