An injury-ravaged Wests Tigers ended a run of five successive NRL defeats with a comfortable 30-0 away win over Penrith in a low-key clash on Sunday.
First-half tries from Adam Blair, Tim Moltzen and Ray Cashmere laid the foundations for the win against a woeful Panthers side, who failed to trouble the scorers for a second successive week, in front of a crowd of 15,759.
The Tigers went into the game without influential back-rowers Gareth Ellis and Chris Heighington and lost skipper Robbie Farah for the game after 13 minutes when he was helped off the field with concussion.
However, it made little difference as Tim Sheens’ side dominated the first period with Blair going over in the fifth minute after Sandor Earl knocked on in front of his own posts to give the visitors excellent field position.
Farah joined the Tigers’ walking wounded list when he put his head in the wrong position when tackling Dayne Weston and was poleaxed by the hip of the big front-rower.
The setback failed to ruffle the Tigers and they extended their lead when Moltzen put the finishing touches to a fine move started by a powerful run from prop Aaron Woods.
Cashmere added a third four-pointer from close range on the half-hour mark after latching onto a no-look pass from Benji Marshall and rumbling his way to the line.
At the start of the second period, the Panthers lost five-eighth Travis Burns, also to concussion, and with it any efficiency in attack, as they failed to score for the second successive week, following Monday’s 30-0 loss to Manly.
Young five-eighth Blake Austin butchered the best chance of the game for the hosts midway through the second half but, with the try at his mercy, he inexplicably slipped over, centimetres from the line and lost the ball.
The Tigers made them pay for the error when Tom Humble lunged over from close range after a good run from Joel Reddy with Marshall adding his fourth goal of the day.
The joint venture saved their best until last three minutes from time when Marshall, who was largely subdued for most of the game, broke free and released Moltzen who raced over for his second try.
