'It's always good coming back home': Rams junior savours Penrith victory

Panthers went down in a shock loss on that occasion, so there weren't many people on the Panthers roster who were hungrier to try and get revenge over the Tigers in Saturday's latest edition of the Bathurst game.

Henry cut a much happier figure this time around.

He and his Panthers came away 22-6 winners over the Tigers in a gritty match where the two sides were separated by no more than six points for nearly an hour of the game.

It wasn't until tries to Paul Alamoti and James Fisher-Harris inside the last 20 minutes where Panthers were able to gain some breathing room.

Panthers claimed the win in front of a sold out Bathurst crowd of 12,000.

The result sees Henry and the Panthers bounce back from the previous round's loss to the Manly Sea Eagles, and they look set to welcome back star halfback Nathan Cleary for next weekend game.

Henry said the game might not have been some sort of clinical masterclass from the Panthers but it showed plenty of character.

"I'm feeling really good after that one. It's always good coming back home to play," he said.

"It was a funny sort of game, and a very scrappy one, but I'm very happy to come away with the win, for sure.

"The week before wasn't so good, but we've been enjoying the start of the season so hopefully we can keep it going.

"All week we just remainder focused on ourselves and just do what we do best."

Henry came off the bench 20 minutes into the match and enjoying half an hour out in the middle.

He finished with eight runs for 70 metres and 21 tackles.

Henry said it was a nice feeling to flip around the result from the 2023 Bathurst game.

"It's very special to play in this team and play in front of friends and family today," he said.

"That's just unreal. I'm so stoked with that win. This was my second time here [with Penrith] and it was a much better result this time around."

Wests threatened to make it a repeat of last year's upset when Junior Tupou stormed down the wing for the opening try.

However, Panthers' own winger, Sunia Turuva, bagged himself a first half brace to put his team up 10-6 at the break.

Tigers made several threatening moves close to the try line in the second half but the Panthers' defence held strong, and they would soon find themselves rewarded for those efforts.

Alamoti finally found the breakthrough try down the left wing in the 63^rd minute and then a tough try to prop Fisher-Harris put the game out of the Tigers' reach.

It was emotional moment for the Penrith forward who announced this week that he would be released by the Panthers at the end of this season on compassionate grounds, so he could be closer to family in New Zealand.