Knights eye home final
Newcastle slays woeful Dragons
NRL
NEWCASTLE has heaped more misery on an embarrassing St George Illawarra to put the Knights in the box seat to claim the club’s first home final since way back in 2006.
The Knights jumped back into sixth spot on the NRL ladder after scoring an impressive 42-18 win over a dreadful Dragons side.
Newcastle hasn’t played finals football since 2013 under Wayne Bennett. But Sunday’s victory was resounding, racing in seven tries to three. The Knights now take on the Titans on the Gold Coast on Friday, knowing victory will secure them a home final against South Sydney.
The Rabbitohs play the Sydney Roosters on Friday.
While the Knights were impressive in racing to a 30-6 halftime lead, the Dragons played like the end of their season can’t come soon enough. Whether it was dropped balls, missed tackles, poor kicks or a lack of discipline, the Dragons’ performance just wasn’t up to NRL standard across the board.
It was a welcome win for the Knights on their annual Old Boys Day, with a crowd of 6659 lapping it up.
The Knights totally dominated in the forwards, which opened up the game for the likes of Kalyn Ponga and Mitch Pearce to pick the Dragons
apart. Ponga again was all class, but the Knights had no shortage of worthy performers in the forwards.
Daniel Saifiti (172m), David Klemmer (152m), Herman Ese’ese (132m) and Mitch Barnett (120m) were all impressive in cracking 100m-plus.
For the Dragons, Zac Lomax and Matt Dufty couldn’t have tried harder, while young winger Cody Ramsay can hold his head up.
PAUL CRAWLEY