Knights V Titans Post Match Thread

[Pumba]

Knights put Titans to sword
August 11, 2008 - 9:10PM

The Newcastle Knights have returned to the NRL top eight with a dominant 32-12 win over the Gold Coast Titans at Skilled Park.

The night will be remembered however for the debut of 16-year-old Jordan Rankin, who impressed coming off the bench for the home side.

The Australian schoolboys halfback sat nervously on the bench for 52 minutes before being thrown into the action, and immediately showed confidence belying his tender years.

The Year 11 student began with an unconvincing attempt at tackle, being bumped away by Knights centre Junior Sau, who bagged a double for the Knights.

With his first touch though Rankin put in a chip and chase, and it almost came off.

Titans lock Luke O'Dwyer regathered, but the support overran the ball and O'Dwyer ended up passing to a Knights player.

The Burleigh junior persisted, and just seven minutes into his NRL career looked sure to score, backing up a rampaging Josh Graham just five metres out from the Knights line.

The offload went straight to Rankin's hands, but he spilt the ball, and the Knights were able to clean up.

"My defence wasn't on par," Rankin told Fox Sports after the match.

"There were a few big boys out there tonight and that's something I'll work on.

"I got roughed up before but that was something you'd expect.

"I wish I could have scored that try.

"I'm back to school tomorrow, I've got to start studying for my end of term tests."

What will boost the youngster's confidence was the fact the Titans looked most dangerous when he was on the field.

Unfortunately for the home crowd of 15, 136 though, the damage was already done when he came on.

Taking a 16-6 lead into halftime, the Knights wrapped up the game with two quick tries to open the second stanza.

Both came against the Titans' right side defence, with Sau scoring his second in the 41st minute, and second rower Corey Paterson strolling to touch down on almost the same blade of grass ten minutes later.

That took the score to 26-6, and from there only the introduction of Rankin drew any interest, with handling errors dominating the closing periods as both sides attempted to play attacking football.

Cooper Vuna scored again for the Knights before Brad Myers got a consolation effort for the Titans on the stroke of fulltime.

Earlier, Adam MacDougall was placed on report by referee Steve Lyons twice within 30 seconds.

MacDougall first came under scrutiny in the 15th minute for a head slam on his opposite Gavin Cooper, before being cited for a dangerous throw on Titans forward Michael Hodgson with teammate Steve Simpson moments later.

NEWCASTLE 32 (J Sau 2 K Gidley A MacDougall C Paterson C Vuna tries K Gidley 2 C Paterson 2 goals) bt GOLD COAST 12 (B Meyers J Rapana tries P Campbell 2 goals) at Skilled Park. Referee: S Lyons. Crowd: 15,136.

Link

 

[BG]

Back next week.

Cross, Royal, Lulia, Wicks, Aku & maybe Wes.

I think Mad Dog will get a week atleast. Aku to Wing -> Coops to centre.

Lulia, Wicks, Wes to NSW Cup.

The rest are hard decisions.

If everyone available, then Naiqama on the wing for mine. Mainly for his defence. If Doogs suspended, Wes in the centres and a wing spot to Coops or Aku.

 

[sneaky_is_here]

was happy with it, some sh*t house calls once again by the ref

 

[Adsy]

Ref was sh*te again tonight and so was the video ref. Who was up in the box tonight? He had a massive vendetta against us. How Housten's try got called a penalty against Dureau is beyond me. You see that happen every match and it's not a penalty.

Another solid win by the boys though so I'm extremely happy.

Thought Mullo had one of his best performances all year. Slick passing and running game. HAVE TO KEEP HIM AT 5/8!!

 

[Burwood]

MacDougall should be fine unless he has had a similar charge to the head slam over the last couple of years. Grade 1 contrary conduct, which will see him with about 93 carry over points (unless there are is some form of loading).

Nothing should amount from the dangerous throw charge.

 

[Jobdog]

Ref was sh*te again tonight and so was the video ref. Who was up in the box tonight? He had a massive vendetta against us. How Housten's try got called a penalty against Dureau is beyond me. You see that happen every match and it's not a penalty.

Another solid win by the boys though so I'm extremely happy.

Thought Mullo had one of his best performances all year. Slick passing and running game. HAVE TO KEEP HIM AT 5/8!!

Ref's have always been sh*te, so I don't know why everyone is so surprised, but in saying that, the no-try call against Houston was diabolical. The penalty for Gidley taking Rapana off the ball was absolute bullsh*t too.

One thing I have noticed in the last three weeks is that we tend to get to around the 50th to 60th minutes and then we put the cue in the rack and cruise home. Has anyone else noticed this? :crazy:

 

[Adsy]

One thing I have noticed in the last three weeks is that we tend to get to around the 50th to 60th minutes and then we put the cue in the rack and cruise home. Has anyone else noticed this? :crazy:

I noticed we started falling off tackles for the middle 20 minutes in that 2nd half. A better team would have turned a few of those half chances into tries.

 

[KniGhTs BaTTLeR]

Was at the game and it was the first time I was getting excited about some of the tries we scored, we are getting some attacking flare back but the difference is we are backing it up with some decent defence. The ref was an idiot as usual not so much the penalties he blew more the fact we weren't getting any again.

Still alot of improvement which is the best thing. I don't want Cross to come back TBH im happy with how our front rowers are going.

 

[Adsy]

Still alot of improvement which is the best thing. I don't want Cross to come back TBH im happy with how our front rowers are going.

Probs put Cross in over Fa's or Taufua. Richie can not hang onto the ball.

I'm more worried about the return of the fat man.

 

[Whats Doing]

Back from the game.

I ahev seen the titans play all their home games this yeat and they put on their worst performance so far.

Putting that into perspective, the knights played very well for the first 30 minutes and some of their slickness in attack was the best I have seen all year. This went out the window in the second half which wqs very sloppy.

The knights defence was solid, they did not dominate the taxkle often enough and against the better teams, they will struggle unless this is attended to.

I was impressed with Taufua who I haven't seen first hand before and he will only get better. Sau was dominant in his running but doesn't look to pass the ball too often. Patto played close to best game all year and should take over the goal kickikng full time.

Except for a few good kicks (and they were good), Dureau was average in general play and doesn't control the attack. The show really revolves around Bedsey, Mullo and Gidley and I think Dureau either needs to come off the bench or not at all.

The ref and video ref were atrocious. I don't know what replays they were looking at (maybe Debbie does Dallas or something) but they weren't watching the game replays.

Maybe the knights were thinking one game ahead with the Raiders because on tonights form, they need to lift markedly.

Anyway a win is a win and a comfortable win at that but the opposition were terrible.

 

[Adsy]

Except for a few good kicks (and they were good), Dureau was average in general play and doesn't control the attack. The show really revolves around Bedsey, Mullo and Gidley and I think Dureau either needs to come off the bench or not at all.

The ref and video ref were atrocious. I don't know what replays they were looking at (maybe Debbie does Dallas or something) but they weren't watching the game replays.

Classic Debbie does Dallas line.

On Scotty though. One of the best passes all night was Dureau to Bedsy where the ranga brought Danny down a metre from the line.

His long kicking game was the best out of anyone on the field and the most important thing in my opinion is he compliments Mullen's game better then any other player at Newcastle.

 

[roopy]

I'd love to see a breakdown of our scoreing this year when Scotty is on the field.

I suspect the stats would be dramatic.

We went several games where we scored most of our points at the end of the game after he came on, and now he is playing full games we are scoreing at will nearly.

 

[BG]

I'd love to see a breakdown of our scoreing this year when Scotty is on the field.

I suspect the stats would be dramatic.

We went several games where we scored most of our points at the end of the game after he came on, and now he is playing full games we are scoreing at will nearly.

That could be a bit misleading. Until recently we were scoring most of our points at the end of the game whoever was playing. We also have to consider that we haven't excatly played great oppostion the past three weeks. In a couple of those matches where we scored points after Dureau came on, Beds was out and Dureau played dummy-half, so I'm not sure that it's relevant to what he adds to our attack when he's in the #7.

On the other hand, I believe Dureau's mere presence adds something to our attack simply by creating another potential playmaker that the defence have to keep their eyes on. One good thing about Dureau is that even when he isn't consistently making great plays he is far from one-dimensional. He threatens the long pass, or an inside ball, or even an occasional dummy and go. But his best asset right now is his kicking game, and it's a huge advantage to have two serious kicking options as we do when both Scott and Mullo are on the field.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Ref was sh*t. Another mind-altering no-try from the video ref against us too.

The penalty for the tackle after the kick on Rapana was a classic example of a "crowd penalty". How the cover defender could have pulled out of that one is beyond me. The no try to Houston was another mind blowing decision.

MacDougall will probably get a week or two for some ugly looking tackles. Tough to tell. Will be a shame. He even made McMinus look good on a play tonight. f**king miracle worker. Don't worry, Kelso managed to grab air on a few bombs and clown footed it into touch. Always good for a laugh he and Houston.

Classic bait there DMC :lol: No bitey bitey from me champ

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Richie looks like he is going to drop the ball every time he gets it, very unusual trait for an islander with their pancake hands. Didnt really offer much impact IMO.

 

[Danish Moo Cow]

Classic bait there DMC :lol: No bitey bitey from me champ

Bait? Simple observation. Besides, there's no argument in anything I said. His game was pathetic.

 

[Karmawave]

I think it's credit to the Knights that they can continue to win NRL games with only 12.5 men on the field.

Dureau deadset did nothing last night. He can throw a nice pass, but that's his job, pass the ball and get the f*ck outta the way.

To counteract his OK passing, once again his last tackle options were poor, letting the Titans off the hook on more than one occasion with a kick that was either too long, not high enough, or just overall sh*thouse.

No suprise that all quality attack last night came from the skills of Mullen.

 

[Karmawave]

I'd love to see a breakdown of our scoreing this year when Scotty is on the field.

I suspect the stats would be dramatic.

....And misleading.

Our best halves of football this year have been the 2nd half against the Roosters at Bluetongue Stadium early in the year when we defeated the Roosters coming from behind.

And the first half last week against the Parramatta Eels.

Funnily enough, neither game had any input from Dureau whatsoever, with him not even in the team in the first, and SuperSubbing on the bench in the second - where we were playing with 7 forwards and one half.

If only he had one part of his game that was equal to how good he is at f*cking up last tackle options - he'd be a worldbeater.

 

[Danish Moo Cow]

I too thought Dureau was a little flat last night. Some poor passes and the direction at times ordinary. Most trys came from simply giving service to the centres who were both outstanding.

But it's getting a little better. A month ago we never even looked like putting on many points when inside the opposition half unless it was Kurt or Buderus. Now they're all looking more dangerous. Got to keep improving though. Really missed Zeb up the middle, hopefully Cross can fill that void. Kelso's also got to learn he isn't stronger than anyone and should get to ground ASAP whenever he is trying to score or fielding a kick (unneccassarily, btw) right next to the sideline.

Defence is looking much better though. Would've loved Kelso to take that kick with 3 to go, but how effing funny was it when he swallowed air and his clown companion Houston simply took it dead in goal without even trying? Give-up much, guys? Then Houston juggled it to gift them a last-minute try to concede 7th spot. Nice work, guys.

 

[Karmawave]

A month ago we never even looked like putting on many points when inside the opposition half unless it was Kurt or Buderus. Now they're all looking more dangerous. Got to keep improving though.

We were piling on the points last week playing with 7 forwards and one half. :lol:

I don't know if that's more a reflection on the opposition, or the fact that 99% of our attack relies simply on Buderus feeding just about anyone who feeds Mullen who practically runs our entire attack.

I reckon you could do what Dureau does DMC, except I think your last tackle kicks might have more height.