{"id":329693,"date":"2023-09-09T08:59:51","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T08:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=329693"},"modified":"2023-09-09T10:00:41","modified_gmt":"2023-09-09T10:00:41","slug":"huge-boost-for-sidelined-luai-as-panthers-win-finals-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=329693","title":{"rendered":"Huge boost for sidelined Luai as Panthers win finals clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

T\ufeffhe Panthers<\/a>' emphatic win over the Warriors<\/a> on Saturday spells terrific news for the injury rehabilitations of Jarome Luai<\/a> and Izack Tago as Penrith eyes the preliminary finals.<\/p>\n

Penrith carved out a slick victory over the\ufeff New Zealand club at BlueBet Stadium, earning itself a week off and clearing its path to a grand final qualifier.<\/p>\n

The two best sides of the regular season, the Panthers and Broncos, accounted for their qualifying final opponents with ease\ufeff, securing a week off and putting themselves within 80 minutes of a grand final berth.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Papenhuyzen update after 'awful' injury\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Lockyer's solution to fix Dolphins woes\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie Olympian shatters record in rare event\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Penrith's win bought Luai more time to improve his fitness after he suffered a shoulder injury<\/a>, as well as extra time for Tago\ufeff as he rehabilitates his pectoral muscle.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand club's defeat means Shaun Johnson won't have until week three of the finals to overcome his calf injury<\/a>, but Warriors coach Andrew Webster believes the veteran halfback will be fit for next week's match.<\/p>\n

The Warriors are now awaiting a home semi-final against the\ufeff winner of Sunday's elimination final between the Knights and Raiders in Newcastle.<\/p>\n

\"Jarome<\/p>\n

"Obviously the week off's perfect for Romey (Luai) and Tags (Tago)," said Penrith coach Ivan Cleary in his post-game press conference.<\/p>\n

"A few of these guys, too, like Yeoy (Isaah Yeo) and that \u2014 they've been playing every week. It's good for those boys, too.<\/p>\n

"I guess we'll have decisions to make.<\/p>\n

"Very high if it's up to Romey," Cleary said when asked about the likelihood of Luai featuring in Penrith's preliminary final.<\/p>\n

"I'm not sure otherwise. He would play, 100 per cent he would play. We've got to work out whether he can play and function in a game of that intensity. But so far so good."<\/p>\n

Webster had pleasing news for Warriors fans when asked about Johnson in his post-match press conference.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Confident, definitely confident. I was confident he'd play this week,"\ufeff Webster said.<\/p>\n

"It will just be day by day there and just keeping ticking over.<\/p>\n

"But [I'm] confident he'll be right [for the home semi-final]."<\/p>\n

\"Warriors<\/p>\n

At BlueBet Stadium on Saturday, \ufeffthe Panthers bagged the opening points when Brian To'o crossed for a try in the fifth minute.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A try each to Liam Martin and Sunia Turuva followed as the Panthers shot out to a \ufeff20-0 lead within the first 30 minutes, and although Wayde Egan shot through for a four-pointer just before the hour mark, a second Turuva try several minutes later snuffed out any hope of a Warriors comeback.<\/p>\n

Nathan Cleary then raced away\ufeff for a try in the final 10 minutes to the delight of an electric sell-out crowd.<\/p>\n

The champion Penrith halfback was the Panthers' best, kicking superbly, troubling the Warriors' with his running game, combining well with five-eighth Jack Cogger and defending stoically.<\/p>\n

The Panthers are aiming to become the first club of the NRL<\/a> era to win three premierships in a row.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

T\ufeffhe Panthers' emphatic win over the Warriors on Saturday spells terrific news for the injury rehabilitations of Jarome Luai and Izack Tago as Penrith eyes […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=329693"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329698,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329693\/revisions\/329698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/329695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=329693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=329693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=329693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}