Two Blake Ferguson tries helped the Sydney Roosters to a 20-12 victory over Penrith on Monday but once again a refereeing howler was at the centre of attention at Allianz Stadium.

Ferguson crossed twice in the second half – his first scores for the club – as the Roosters bounced back from last week’s defeat to South Sydney.

The centre’s last four-pointers in the NRL came on this ground in August 2013 in his final game for Canberra against the side that he now plays for.

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Trailing 6-0 to a first-half Shaun Kenny-Dowall try, Panthers winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak looked to have scored with brilliant one-handed effort.

Lead referee Gerrard Sutton called no-try but requested a video referral and footage cleary showed the young Kiwi had downward pressure on the ball with his fingertips.

Panthers Josh Mansour (centre) is tackled by Mitchell Aubusson (left), Aidan Guerra and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (right) of the Roosters. Photo: AAP

However, Shayne Hayne and Luke Patten backed Sutton’s initial call much to the relief of the majority of the 10,753 crowd.

Penrith, chasing a first 3-0 start to a season since 1997, soon found themselves 8-0 down when James Maloney converted a penalty before a moment of magic from Josh Mansour got them on the scoreboard.

Returning to the side following off-season shoulder surgery, Mansour hauled in a Peter Wallace kick, then kept his feet in play and shovel-passed to the onrushing Jamal Idris.

Matt Moylan’s sideline kick cut the deficit to two points at halftime only for Ferguson to extend the hosts’ lead five minutes after the restart.

A wayward pass from Mitchell Pearce hit the ground but Ferguson reacted quickest to gather the ball and sprint to the line.

He doubled his tally just after the hour mark when the Roosters took advantage of a James Segeyaro’s knock-on and spread the ball wide for the former NSW centre to apply an easy finish.

Segeyaro atoned for that error with a try under the posts 13 minutes from time but a grandstand finish never materialised as the Roosters defence held firm.

– AAP