Ponga puts Origin behind him as Knights hold off Eels
Dave Lyall |
Kalyn Ponga has bounced back from the calamity of State of Origin to lead the Knights to a scrappy 28-22 win over the gallant Eels.
Ponga escaped with just a fine for his grade-two shoulder charge on Tolu Koula in Origin I, but showed no signs of the mental scars with a typically busy display at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle on Saturday afternoon.
Dylan Lucas, fresh from Origin camp with NSW, was brilliant for Newcastle, scoring a double and proving a handful on the left edge for Parramatta half Ronald Volkman, while fellow NSW Blue Jacob Saifiti was menacing.
The Knights (8-4) have now won four on the trot, scoring 150 points in the process, and are fourth on the ladder midway through the season.
Saturday’s result was in stark contrast to the last time the teams met in round 27 last season, when the Eels destroyed Newcastle 66-10, showing just how far the Knights have come since Justin Holbrook took over.
Victory came at a price, with Sandon Smith leaving the field early in the second half with a calf injury.
Newcastle started smartly when Lucas ran a perfect line on to a lovely pass from Smith after just two minutes to open the scoring.
The Eels bounced back inside 10 minutes when Brian Kelly, playing his 200th NRL game, crashed over through traffic out wide.
Greg Marzhew was the next to score for the home side, his 10th try in four games, before the Eels got their second when Dylan Walker pounced on a Tallyn Da Silva grubber.
Parramatta had two chances to go ahead approaching halftime, both via Sean Russell. First, he was correctly judged to be offside when he plucked a kick from the air and plunged over, then when Joash Papalii burst clear and threw his centre a forward pass.
At the break it was 12-10 to the Knights.
The second half began disastrously for the Eels, with Newcastle bench hooker Harrison Graham splitting some porous defence on 44 minutes to run 50 metres from dummy half to score under the sticks.
What followed was a horrific period where both sides struggled to hold on to the ball, coughing up seven handling errors in 10 minutes.
Newcastle finally showed some composure and Lucas scored his second, bursting on to a no-look pass from Fletcher Sharpe to outpace the defence in a 60m sprint to the line.
The Eels refused to lie down and Volkman, who showed flashes of brilliance in attack, slipped a nice kick into the in-goal for Jordan Samrani to touch down.
Fletcher Hunt, who had come on for Smith, crossed with 10 minutes to go, but Parramatta again stayed in the fight when Samrani plucked an intercept from the air and Isaiah Iongi scored, setting up a nail-biting finish, with the Knights just hanging on.
AAP