KNIGHTS BACK IN THE HUNT
Tony Delany
The Coal & Allied Newcastle Knights have powered their way into 8th position on the Premiership ladder with a commanding 32-12 win over the Paramatta Eels before a crowd of 16,435 at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
Newcastle coach Brian Smith celebrated his 500th top grade game as a coach and had plenty to cheer about early.
The Knights staged a dream start with Jarrod Mullen delivering an opportunity for Chris Houston to break attempted tackles from Brett Finch and Chad Robinson to score next to the posts for an early 6-0 lead.
Newcastle continued to build pressure and capitalised again in the 13th minute with Danny Buderus striking from dummy half to give his outside men momentum, culminating in a try to winger James McManus to make it 10-0 to the home side.
Jarrod Mullen looked to further stamp his authority on the match by kicking his 3rd 40/20 of the season, laying the foundation for Newcastle's third try in the ensuing set when veteran Knight Adam MacDougall easily disposed of Krisnan Inu to give the Novocastrians a 14-0 advantage.
Paramatta's woes continued with Luke Burt assisted from the field in the 22nd minute with rib cartilage damage, forcing further positional changes for Eels coach, Michael Hagan.
The Knights refused to lift the pedal and looked to further increase their lead in the 25th minute when James McManus appeared to miss a kick cross field kick, cleaned up by Adam MacDougall but denied by video referee Phil Cooley.
The Knights continued to play disciplined football in the first 30 minutes completing 13 of their 14 sets of six and setting up an excellent platform for their 4th try when Jarrod Mullen sent Mark Taufua crashing past Nathan Hindmarsh and Jarrod Hayne on his way a 20-0 lead.
Parramatta needed to be next to score to stay in the match and their first try came in the 38th minute via Joel Reddy, converted by Krisnan Inu from touch to make it a 20-6 going at the break.
Paramatta's Weller Hauraki was placed on report when he caught Knight's fullback Kurt Gidley high, giving Scott Dureau a gift two points in front of the uprights to further extend the lead to 22-6.
The Knights continued to drive the sword further into the visitors when Junior Sau’s momentum carried him over the line for his his 5th try of 2008. The powerful centre continued to be a handful for the visitors after making yet another break down the left hand corridor and kicking ahead for his team mate only to be denied by a blade of grass in the 62nd minute.
Knights lock Zeb Taia suffered a suspected Grade 2 medial ligament injury when Weller Hauraki forced his left knee to buckle with further scans this week to determine the extent of the injury.
On a disappointing return to home soil, former Newcastle junior, Todd Lowrie managed to find the try line from the ensuing set after some clever lead up play from Brett Finch to make it 28-12.
But the Knights put the icing on the cake in the 79th minute when Dureau toed through a beautifully weighted kick for Steve Simpson to score his maiden try for season 2008 and hand the Knights a 32-12 victory.
At the post match media conference, Eels halfback Brett Finch was critical of his sides goal line defence.
“It's been a concern for us all year and that’s pretty much our season done for now.”
“With our form the way it’s been we don’t deserve to be in the semi's.”
Knights coach Brian Smith didn’t overstate the victory but highlighted the performances of Newcastle’s younger players as the major positive coming out of the win.
“The young players we have in the team… Akuila Uate, I thought has really grabbed his opportunities, Junior Sau continues to develop and I thought Mark Tafua played his best game for us” said Smith.
“We are at a stage now were we need to keep winning every week, I didn’t feel we were totally dominate, I thought we lost our way a few times but we did enough to win and there are plenty of things coming out of that game that we will be improving on for next week.”
The Knights travel to Skilled Stadium next week to play the 11th placed Gold Coast Titans.
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