Live: Cleary’s influence being felt as he returns for Panthers against Cowboys

Penrith has the lead after a tough first half. Both teams have made a few errors, but Nathan Cleary has made a superb return from his concussion lay-off and says the team needs to relax a little bit.

“We know we can play so much better,” he tells Fox when asked about the team’s errors.

“It’s just concentration, everyone’s so tense, wanting to win so bad.”

Credit also must go to the Cowboys for surviving that 10-minute period without Reece Robson, even scoring while they were down to 12 men.

Daine Laurie almost threw another intercept, but this time Robert Derby couldn’t handle, so the Panthers get a full set in the Cowboys’ red zone.

And they waste no time, with an Isaah Yeo special, drifting across the field and hitting Luke Garner with a perfect short ball while looking out the back.

Reece Robson’s time in the sin-bin ends as Jake Clifford’s attempt at a low, driving touch-finder ricochets off Jack Cole. But he didn’t play at it, and the Panthers attack from around halfway.

Jack Cole throws the intercept and Robert Derby goes 80 metres down field, but Casey McLean gives chase and eventually tracks him down. Not only that, Derby tries to swerve away, but goes too close to the sideline and has to throw the ball back infield, and the Panthers regather.

Derby just needed to take his medicine there and hope the Cowboys could do the damage with a full set.

It’s a beautiful shift to the right by the Cowboys. Scott Drinkwater gets through the line as Jack Cole takes a tumble and finds Viliami Vailea as he’s falling and the big centre does the rest.

Not a bad effort from the 12-man Cowboys.

John Bateman’s legs clipped Cole’s foot in a manner not dissimilar to an obstruction call that denied Kaeo Weekes last night, but this time the try is confirmed.

And Drinkwater converts to make it 12-12.

They had a seven-tackle set and a reset in Cowboys’ territory, but Mitch Kenny’s slick cut-out face ball is dropped by Lindsay Smith.

It’s Smith’s second error right in front of the posts late in the set.

The Cowboys waste no time hitting back after a knock-on by the Panthers under the posts.

The ball is popped up to Drinkwater, who spins it out to Tom Dearden. Dearden turns Murray Taulagi back inside and he breaks upfield. He finds Jaxon Purdue outside him, but can’t truly unleash the speedster and Paul Alamoti tracks him down just over halfway.

Daine Laurie is cut down in a Sam McIntyre tackle and falls into the arm of Reece Robson.

It’s another penalty and a journey into the Cowboys’ half.

After a look from the bunker, Robson is called out for direct contact with the head and moderate force. Tom Dearden pleads his teammate’s case, but Peter Gough sends him for 10 in the bin.

That’s the second sin-bin of this latest crackdown, after Hudson Young last night.

Nathan Cleary drills through a grubber with that perfect curl on it between the uprights and it skips away from Tom Dearden at the last moment and into the path of Tago, who grounds the ball.

It comes after Cleary’s well-weighted bomb forced an error from Murray Taulagi in the aerial contest (although I’m not sure the knock-on identified by Peter Gough wasn’t actually knocked back).

Cleary making his presence felt in the opening 20 minutes here.

The Cowboys prop comes out of a tackle on Isaah Yeo grabbing at his jaw.

NRL players are usually pretty good at diagnosing their own jaw injuries. He’s being checked on by a trainer but he’s going to play on for now.

It’s a long-range try created by Nathan Cleary, who fakes turning Jack Cole and Luke Garner under, skips across the park past a couple of wrong-footed defenders and then finds Casey McLean.

McLean was named on the wing, but he seems to be playing centre in a lot of shapes, and shovels on a pass to Tom Jenkins outside him. Jenkins breaks down the left and finds McLean backing up on the inside.

I can’t imagine he’ll have much to answer for from that, just rapping up Daine Laurie a little too high in a ball-and-all tackle.

The Panthers get a penalty off a hard charge by Izack Tago and Cleary, playing off the front foot, pokes his nose through down the left and almost gets the offload away to Jack Cole outside him.

The attacking set ends in a changeover as Daine Laurie is caught on the last. It looked like Jake Clifford slipped up too high, but the referee says no.

A penalty and a repeat set yield rewards for the Cowboys as they spin it left on the fourth tackle and Scott Drinkwater hits Jaxon Purdue short and he finds a great offload to Murray Taulagi to touch down.

Great attacking shift from the Cows with Tom Dearden, Drinkwater and Purdue all playing their roles expertly. Also a very hard line run by Kai O’Donnell to freeze Liam Martin and Nathan Cleary in the defensive line and create the numbers out wider.

North Queensland tries to spin it to get out of their own half by going around the Panthers, but Scott Drinkwater’s attempted cut-out pass is nowhere near the mark and gifts Penrith field position.

Drinkwater’s error rate continues to climb this season.

It’s a high kick into a contest, but Murray Taulagi climbs above Paul Alamoti for an easy mark.

Meanwhile, Izack Tago’s bleeding badly from his right eyebrow. I’m not sure when that happened to be honest.

And Jordan McLean takes the first charge, sending Moses Leota reeling out of the contact.

But Penrith aims up in defence and force North Queensland to kick long to end the set.

The skipper and stalwart of this team is playing his 250th game.

One of the sections has been christened the Isaah Yeo Grandstand by Panthers fans for the night.

Dylan Edwards offers so much from the back for this team, but the workload has taken a toll.

He’s still out with a groin injury, which can take a long time to rehab. And, even when you think it’s fine, can flare back up unexpectedly.

His replacement, Daine Laurie, is his polar opposite. He’s flashier, but does have a few mistakes in him as we saw last week.