Penrith got its premiership defence underway in Las Vegas on Saturday night, with a 28-22 victory over Cronulla.
Penrith shot out to a 24-10 lead despite conceding the first try, with leaders Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo finishing the first half strongly to put their side in a good position.
Yeo laid a trysaving tackle on Cam McInnes and himself crossed the line, while Cleary set one up, with their performances critical for a team which, not for the first time during their fourpeat, lost significant talent in the offseason.
โWhen you lose players, you can talk about that or you can talk about the guys we still have and we have five or six players in our current team that will be hall of famers, I believe,โ Cleary said.
โIf you've got that many players of that calibre, you're obviously in a pretty good space and I still think their combination and understanding of the system and cohesion together should improve so that's a positive.โ
Co-captain Nathan Cleary indicated Penrith remained a way off their best.
โI thought when we needed to, we stood up but there were moments where we lapsed and conceded penalties and tries too easily so it was pretty rusty, myself definitely included,โ Cleary said.
Both coach and player said it was a privilege to play in Las Vegas.
โThe atmosphere was definitely different, you're playing on a wonderful surface, wonderful atmosphere in a big occasion,โ skipper Isaah Yeo said.
โYou don't get many round 1 games like that.
โWe've been lucky in the last few years that we've had world club challenges and there's been a big emphasis on that, but for round 1 on its own, that'll be really good, particularly for some of the younger boys, Jack Cole's one that springs to mind.
โ(He had) really big preseason trying to fill the number six role โ that's a big occasion for him to come in and I thought he did a wonderful job.โ
