Penrith Panthers thrash New Castle Knights 30 - 8

Panthers celebrate a try. Photo. Penrithpanthers

Penrith Panthers opened the 2014 NRL season with a  30-8 win over Newcastle on Saturday.

The Panthers produced an emphatic second-half display at Sportingbet Stadium, scoring 24 unanswered points against a Knights side badly hindered by injuries to hooker Kurt Gidley, fullback Darius Boyd and halfback Tyrone Roberts.

Despite facing patched up opponents, Cleary said he was delighted with the focus shown by his players with new boys Peter Wallace, Elijah Taylor and Jamie Soward all enjoying encouraging debuts.

"The start of the game wasn't like round one - both teams were pretty accurate," Cleary  told NRL.COM