On the second half vs our first half I reckon a lot of it boils down to that the way the game is played and officiated atm momentum is just such a huge thing, once you have gained it and if you can hold it and score, the defence is forced to make so many consecutive tackles and really just doesn't see any ball.
If you hold it long enough, which we did very well in the first half, your opponent is f**ked energy wise and it becomes very f**king hard for them to wrestle it back.
But with the rest at half time it becomes a reset, and a team like Penrith can and will reset, they are fit and mobile and will back their defence to create that momentum shift, and they did that well. To counter that you gotta take your opportunities, and the key moments for us were the obstruction call on Moses ( fair call ) and the strip on Paulo ( dud call ) . Those two incidents were where we could have regained momentum and gone on with it, but didn't.
That's the difference, in the first half we took those opportunities, in the second we squandered a couple, and that's all it takes, particularly against a quality side like the Pennies. It aint half time talks, or tactics or BA ball ( whatever the f**k that is ) or stupid players lacking pace or skill . It's concentration, attention to detail and probably a fair whack of belief and mental toughness to put effort on top of effort.
I think it's true that we went into the sheds at half time with the win banked, and I think that also played it's part in allowing the Pennies to get on top early and hold the momentum through pretty much the entire half.