World news – Wild weather devastates Bankwest

Welcome to Wide World of Sports’ coverage of the second round of the 2021 NRL season. You can capture all the big moments on our blog or skip to our play-by-play commentary here.

Penrith raised Tyrone May closed his lead to 10 in the final minutes of halftime, a clever kick from Jarome Luai.

And it’s a double dose of good news, Kikau was cleared for return after passing his HIA. </ That's three goalless halves in a row for Penrith to start the year defensively – very solid from last year's small premieres.

Even more bad news on the injury front for Penrith than tryscorer Viliame Kikau for one HIA left.

The bulldozer rower was caught high by Renouf Atoni and only got up slowly before leaving the field.

Penrith could not do anything after the penalty and was leading 4-0 shortly before half-time.

Penrith took the lead early through Viliame Kikau, but as was to be expected, there were some mistakes in the early days.

Due to the heavy rain during the night, the staff (who did an excellent job to get around keep the service playable) do not remove the markings from Friday’s A-League competition which was played on the same field of play.

Fortunately, one more player has to be confused by the extra lines on the floor, but it is Remarkable again how good the field looks, since there was NRL on Thursday night, A-League last night, a reserve game earlier today and buckets of rain in between.

NRL boss Andrew Abdo guaranteed that both the Bulldogs and Panthers game also the kickoff will be at 5:30 pm in Brookvale between Manly and Souths.

« The technology and the drainage of the lawn are fantastic these days and the land managers are all doing an excellent job t.

« I have received reports from Brookvale (Oval) and the turf is in good shape and it is safe to play safely.

 » We thank the ground managers and at this point we are all systems that we need. « 

Welcome to another super Saturday that got off to a bad start for the Panthers and one of their stars succumbed to an injury.

With the news that Api Koroisau would stay for up to six weeks is excluded, Mitch Kenny comes in his first action of the year with the top mark in the Penrith starting team.

The 23-year-old has played in 18 games for Ivan Cleary’s men in the last two seasons.

It was a bit of a surprise that the reserve game was still going given the state of the field – but a Penrith team with soon-to-be bulldog Matt Burton comfortably won against Mounties (28-8).