Penrith has again proven 14-point deficits are still no concern for the NRL's early-season comeback kings, after rising from a pointless first half to beat South Sydney 18-14 on Saturday.
A week after trailing by the same margin and coming back to beat Parramatta, the Panthers trailed 14-0 at the break but spoke about last week's result before piling on three second half tries to win their first two games for just the second time since 2007.
Their last try came with just four minutes remaining, a spectacular five-pass final-tackle play, allowing Nathan Cleary to provide a short lofted inside ball for Tyrone Peachey to burrow his way over.
Making Peachey's effort even more remarkable was the fact it came after he spent the first 63 minutes of the game on the bench - the last 10 of those pacing the sideline and looking at Anthony Griffin's coach's box desperate to get on.
"The boys had a really good mentality," Griffin said.
"They didn't let the scoreboard get into their heads and stuck to what they wanted to do and eventually found the points.
"I'd prefer not to be in that position, but credit to the players with an 18-0 second half again."
Penrith had some assistance in the comeback, after Greg Inglis was ruled out of the last 33 minutes of the match with a concussion trying to tackle Waqa Blake.
Trent Merrin and Blake also scored second half tries, Merrin's effort to open the account coming after he pushed and spun his way over to get the ball down backwards over his head.
Blake's happened with 15 minutes to play and through where Inglis would have been defending for Anthony Seibold's men.
"Greg's fine ... Talking to him after the game he's fine, he was just ruled out by a doctor. He was a big loss for us in the second half," Seibold said.
"Waqa Blake was really good last week, we had a good look at him during the week and knew he was going to be a threat for Penrith."
Earlier, the Rabbitohs looked to have control of the match with a dominant opening half in Adam Doueihi's debut at No.7 in place of the injured Adam Reynolds.
They had their first in the 15th minute via a length-of-the-field effort through five sets of hands, kick started by a Richard Kennar bust and finished by a jinking Cody Walker run.
Hooker Damien Cook scored before halftime to set up the 14-0 lead, while Doueihi also kicked well in his first game in charge of the team's attack.
Share
