Another loss puts heat on Stuart

BESIEGED Canberra coach Ricky Stuart is adamant the rumours of discontent at the club are only gossip and the truth is he has a united team ready to fight its way out of a worrying five-game losing streak.

The Raiders equalled their worst run of defeats on Stuart’s seven-year watch after throwing away a 16-point advantage to go down 24-16 to Newcastle in Wagga Wagga on Saturday.

It was yet another secondhalf collapse on the back of a week of drama over the playing future of English duo George Williams and Josh Hodgson and a social media spray directed at Stuart by the wife of interchange forward Joe Tapine.

But a grim-faced Stuart insisted: “They’re problems that you read, they’re not problems inside the camp. They’re problems that everyone enjoys reading and speculating on, but we’re a happy camp in regards to what you read.”

Told he looked subdued in the dressing-room, Stuart replied: “Did I? That’s good.

“I don’t get fired up over a bunch of blokes who are doing everything they possibly can to play their best to win a game of football.

“We will stick together and keep working hard to get through this rough patch.

“Things aren’t going for us at the moment. We’re just not getting that little bit of luck and bounce (of the ball) at the moment. We’ve got to persevere and stay strong.”

This loss will hurt deeply as the game appeared to be in Canberra’s keeping at halftime. The Raiders led 16-0 but dropped off alarmingly as the Knights launched a comeback off the back of some Kalyn Ponga brilliance. He scored a try and set up the match sealer for Jayden Brailey.

The Raiders failed to score a point after the break, continuing their worrying trend of second half collapses. Losing middle forwards Tapine and Ryan Sutton to injury didn’t help the cause.

The Knights scored two minutes after the interval after catching the Raiders off guard with a short kick-off and used that momentum to take control.

Ponga did it all himself on the hour, scoring a great individual try to bridge the gap to just four. When Tyson Frizell crossed in the 67th minute, the Knights led for the first time.

With injury-hit Canberra running out of interchange players, the Knights shut down a series of late raids and scored through Brailey to claim their first win in seven games.

Proud Knights coach Adam O’Brien said: “It was a performance that we needed. It was what we wanted.”