By MARK CASHMAN

Prop Kalafi Pongi scored a hat trick of tries as the Western Sydney Two Blues won an intriguing showdown in the west 36-29 against Penrith on Saturday.

The Two Blues scored five tries to four and had to withstand a late surge from the Emus who were direct and physical as well as creative throughout the 80 minutes.

The Emus in fact scored 17 points in the final minutes to give some real edge to the finish of the game with some great tries to Willie Tooala and scrumhalf Terry Fanolua and a penalty goal and conversions from Dean Blore.

The foundations for the Two Blues victory was through their forwards with Pongi the beneficiary of some excellent work from his fellow “fatties”.

Pick of the home side’s workers was Tuitakau ‘TK’ Kioa who scored a try and led the forward pack around all day.

“Yeah that’s right ‘TK’ fired up in the second half and led the forward pack which was much needed. His ball carries into contact were excellent,” Two Blues coach Joel Rivers said.

“Peni Tuitupou, our No.8, was also a big contributor being good with his ball carries and getting us over the advantage line more often than not.

“The whole forward pack worked together at scrum time and dominated set piece which was nice to see.”

Outside of the scrum No.10 Rory Garrett played a very sound tactical game for the Two Blues.

His deep corner kicks and control in the second half relieved a lot of pressure while his goal kicking has been on point over the last few weeks and was that way on Saturday.

The Emus were physical and have some great talent. Their backline was smooth and created a lot of issues from their centre pairing of Luke Nadurutalo and Riley Alcorn.

“As expected they were tough to handle in general play if we didn’t win the contact battle first up,” Rivers added.

“Their ability to offload was always dangerous and caused us a number of headaches throughout the game.”

WESTERN SYDNEY TWO BLUES 36 (Kalafi Pongi 3, Tuitakau Kioa, Niko Dalivusa tries; Rory Garrett 4 conversions, pen goal) d PENRITH 29 (Terry Fanolua, Jeremiah Faamausili, Luke Nadurutalo, Willie Tooala; Dean Blore 3 conversions, pen goal).

IMAGE: SUPPLIED