Although all eyes were on the bloke in the Parramatta jumper with the No.6 on his back, it was the performance of Penrith's halves that left Panthers fans scratching their heads at CUA Stadium on Saturday night.

While Jarryd Hayne had a mixed game with two tries, a couple of penalties and a few missed opportunities for the Eels, Penrith's young halves pair of Wade Graham and Jarrod Sammut largely failed to turn opportunities into points.

The Panthers battled for most of the opening half, their endeavours eventually rewarded when Graham set up Michael Jennings for a scrappy four-pointer five minutes before the break.

The home side's only other points came via an opportunist's try to Sammut, the 22-year-old scooping up a poor Hayne grubber before racing 80 metres to score, capping a performance featuring several flashes of brilliance.

But just two tries in 80 minutes left the loyal home crowd disappointed and coach Matthew Elliot bewildered.

"Our plan was to play a lot more footy than we did," Elliot said on Saturday night.

"I'm a bit disappointed we didn't play with more ball movement because that's what we've done a lot of practice on.

"But in saying that we did a good job dominating the ruck, but we need to learn how to play off slow rucks because in the NRL that's what you get."

Elliot, who expected more from his scrumbase combination, said he'd be picking his best 17 next week with experienced forwards Frank Pritchard and Petero Civoniceva to come back into the side.

"I'd be lying if I said it's okay losing, because it's not," Elliot said.

"Obviously there's a lot at stake, starting positions for players.

"We're obviously looking at tinkering with our halves and looking at what our best combinations are through that part of the park.

"I've taken a real lot out of tonight so we can progress the way we play footy."

Parramatta coach Daniel Anderson took heart from Hayne's debut at six but admitted his side still had plenty of work to do.

"Two tries doesn't hurt," Anderson said of Hayne's performance.

"We just have to clean up general areas of the game and have a bit of a chat as a unit.

"We had a front rower (Fuifui Moimoi) kick the ball and a second rower kick the ball tonight so we've got some areas where our halves can dominate the play a bit more."

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