Penrith are sweating on the fitness of star winger Brian To’o after he was taken off with a knee injury. To’o left the field early in the second half and did not return, with scans required to determine the extent of the injury.

The Dragons also lost a key player, with hooker Andrew McCullough departing with what was later revealed to be a dislocated elbow.

Dream start for Kikau in milestone match

Viliame Kikau has enjoyed a dream start to his 100th game, scoring a spectacular charge down try and a second late in the first half to fire Penrith to a halftime lead over St George Illawarra.

The Fijian forward was already emotional after the Panthers flew over his parents for the milestone match, and celebrated in style with two tries that put Penrith 20-6 up at the break. Spencer Leniu grabbed the other, sandwiched between Kikau’s two scores.

Kikau’s first came on the back of two disallowed tries that had seen Izack Tago twice denied. It bore an eerie similarity to last week’s first half against Manly, where Penrith had two tries wiped off by the bunker before opening the scoring and racing into a lead.

Like Round 1, the Panthers were pegged back before halftime, with Tyrell Sloan touching a kick to get the Dragons on the board. St George Illwarra later shot themselves in the foot, however, with Jayden Su’a sent to the bin for a late hit on Sean O’Sullivan.

Su’a later redeemed himself with a second half try that moved the Dragons to within eight points of the Panthers.