Edwards 8
Mansour 7
Crichton 7
Naden 7
To'o 7
Luai 8
Cleary 7
Tamou 7
Kenny 7
Fisher-Harris 8
May 8
Martin 7
Yeo 7
Leota 7
Leniu 7
Burns 6
Tetevano 7
When the Tigers scored the first try, I thought "here, we go, the loss we had to have". When Yeo went off injured I thought "here we go, they will be running through the middle now". But something strange has happened at the foot of the mountains, the Panther's have started to resemble the Storm and Roosters. They don't give in and they will tackle you to death. A couple of points, lest I get a bollocking from kilkenny and Westylife:
- On Sunday morning the Tiger's would have woken up breathing heavily and sweating after a recurring nightmare in which they were engulfed in an endless black wave of arms and legs. The Panther's play with such an intensity it leave teams on their haunches, panting for breath, hands on hips trying to rouse tired limbs. Where has the extraordinary intensity come from? I'm buggered if I know, but long may it continue;
- The Panther's had 15 more sets than the Tigers and run for a massive 741m more. I expected to see the engine room of the Panthers with massive run metres and was shocked to see that JFH (who else) was highest with 134m, and Leota was next with 106m and the rest were all under 100m. It would seem that the Panther's defence had pinned the Tigers in their own half and massive metres from the grunts wasn't required. In fact, the Tigers only had six tackles in the Panther's 20m zone and spent 61% of the time in their own half;
- It seems that the Tigers game is following a season trend where the Panthers dominate field position. After 15 rounds, the stats show the opposition spend less time in the Panther's 20m zone than any other team. The opposition spend the second least time in the Panther's half (after South's). In attack the Panther's spend more time in the opposition 20m zone and the opposition's half, than any other team (the Storm are second). That domination is why against the Tigers, the Panther's spent less time rucking the ball up through the forwards and more time attacking through the backs. Too and Edwards made over 200m, Mansour 165m the rest of the backs and the halves made over 100m (except for Naden with 86m). The backs and halves had a field day. To give credit to the Tigers, they tried hard and it was only their resilience that stopped a cricket score;
- For the May doubters, the Tiger's game was a poke in eye. With two try assists, two line break assists, a line break and 37 tackles with 1 miss, he demonstrated why he is so valued by the coach. A great effort.