Brown: Ponga’ll learn when to play his hand

RUGBY LEAGUE: Kalyn Ponga has no issue handling the increased traffic coming his way in the defensive line. He enjoys it.

The trick from here, though, will be learning when to go looking for that tackling workload and when to save himself for attacking the line.

And there’s an upshot to opponents directing traffic at Ponga.

“Sometimes it won’t be Kalyn’s doing, sometimes the opposition do that to him, but if they’re tiring Kalyn, they aren’t tiring Pearcey out,” Newcastle coach Nathan Brown said, alluding to halfback Mitchell Pearce.

“At the end of the day, one of the things that excited Kalyn about going to five-eighth is he actually likes tackling.

“In saying that, there’s got to be a common-sense factor to it too.

“Kalyn’s number-one aspect in the team is he’s an outstanding offensive player and if he goes chasing too many tackles that could knock him around a bit.

“He’ll learn from experience when to do it and when not to do it.”

The Knights, who host Penrith at McDonald Jones Stadi- um today, had glut of possession they weren’t able to convert into points in their first-up win over Cronulla.

Though they scored two tries in the 14-8 win, the second came from an intercept to Edrick Lee and the first didn’t come until the 68th minute.

Brown is however confident the sharpness in attack will come as the season progresses and was pleased with his team’s control and that the opportunities were there, even if they didn’t result in scoring plays.

“We felt we created enough opportunities last week that we didn’t take,” Brown said.

“We put two over the line in the first 15 minutes. Those things have a big bearing on the game.

“We were quite comfortable with where it’s all at.”