Venue & Time: CUA Stadium, 5:30pm AEST, Saturday July 21
Head to Head: Played 17, Dragons 11, Panthers 6
Last Time: Dragons 28 - Panthers 10 at OKI Jubilee Stadium, round 8, 2007
Coverage: Fox Sports, 2GB, 4BC
Walking Wounded:
Players unavailable for the Panthers include winger Luke Rooney (neck - round 21), second-rower Shane Rodney (shoulder - indefinite), lock Trent Waterhouse (leg - round 22) and fullback Rhys Wesser (foot - round 21).
Dragons star Mark Gasnier will be fit play his first NRL game this season after overcoming a pectoral tear suffered in the Charity Shield. Utility Ben Ellis (hamstring), prop Justin Poore (shoulder) and forward Ashton Simms (knee) should all be back next week, while three other Dragons - Dean Young, Wes Naiqama and Brett Morris - remain unavailable for the season.
Form:
It was a welcome return to form for the Panthers last week when they stormed home in the second-half to notch a 30-20 win over the Bulldogs. The mountain men had not won a match in their five previous outings and reports of inter-club fighting between the coach and certain players had many people labeling them as certainties for the wooden spoon. They still remain on the bottom of the ladder, but the talent is there to improve their position before the season's out as last Saturday evening demonstrated. In the two matches played between Penrith and Dogs this season the Panthers are up by 70-30.
The Dragons' two-match winning streak came to a crashing halt in Auckland last week when they were crushed by the Warriors 16-44. Any thoughts of a late finals charge were knocked on the head early as the Dragons let the opposition slip away to a commanding 26-0 lead after just 28 minutes. They missed 58 tackles in the rout which is one of many areas for Nathan Brown to work on during the week.
Who's Hot:
It must have been refreshing for Panthers fans to see a bit of combination on the edges last Saturday night with both Nick Younquest and Maurice Blair working well on the right side and young Geoff Daniela and boom centre Michael Jennings proving difficult to maintain on the left. Blair set Youngquest up for both of his tries, while Jennings played a role in sending Daniela over for a double. Luke Lewis may have trouble regaining a starting spot.
Who's Not:
Dragons skipper Jason Ryles was a frustrated man last Sunday and it showed in a couple of heated exchanges he had with referee Jared Maxwell. In one particular incident, the former Test prop went off his tree when Maxwell pinged him for a knock-on when the ball clearly went back. Ryles struggled through the game, making a couple of handling errors and failing to make an impact up the middle. He may still be feeling the effects of the knee-cap injury that kept him out for a couple weeks.
Key Match-Ups:
Richie Williams v Mark Gasnier
Joel Clinton v Jason Ryles
Craig Gower v Jamie Soward
Like To See
Mark Gasnier emerge unscathed from his first game back in many months. It's refreshing to see one of the big guns returning at a time when stars are falling like nine-pins.
Wouldn't Like to See
The Dragons miss as many tackles as they did last week. Certain players in