NRL 2023 Round 11: Newcastle Knights win 46-26 over Gold Coast Titans, Kalyn Ponga, David Fifita press Origin claims
While Newcastle players came under fire for using their week off to take a holiday, the Knights have responded with their biggest win in a decade.
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Kalyn Ponga produced an inspirational display to send a timely reminder to Maroons coach Billy Slater while Knights teammate and NSW Blues contender Tyson Frizell faces a nervous wait after being placed on report for a suspected cannonball tackle in Newcastle’s 46-26 victory over Gold Coast at McDonald Jones Stadium.
It was a spirited second 40 minutes from the home side and a disappointing one from Gold Coast, as the Knights snapped a two-game losing streak and dashed the Titans’ hopes of adding a third consecutive win to their impressive 2023 resume.
Mid-week criticism now looks a little silly after Ponga produced a master-class against an impressive and seemingly finals bound Titans.
Much of the post-match talk will focus on Ponga’s best performance at five-eighth for the Knights, as well as a tackle that saw Gold Coast captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui leave the field with a lower leg injury.
Late in the first-half, Frizell launched towards the Titans’ captain’s legs as two Newcastle defenders worked the upper body and Fa’asuamaleaui looked in immediate trouble. Frizell was placed on report and the incident reminded everyone that there are plenty of variations of the so-called hip-drop to be concerned about.
How the decision makers view the tackle will be an interesting watch and instructive to defensive coaches still grappling with the nuances involved in bringing players to ground legally and safely.
FITTLER, SLATER SWEAT AS ORIGIN HOPEFULS FACE NERVOUS WAIT
—Wilson Smith and Matt Cleary
State of Origin hopefuls Corey Horsburgh and Junior Paulo could be facing a nervous wait ahead of Game I, as the Raiders stormed into the top eight following 26-18 victory over Parramatta Eels.
Queensland Maroons hopeful Corey Horsburgh could come under scrutiny of the match review committee, after being sin-binned for throwing a punch on Ryan Matterson.
Horsburgh lashed out at Eels forward Matterson as play broke down following an Eels knock-on, as the Raiders enforcer appeared to take exception to the Eels forward joining the tackle late.
The Raiders were awarded the penalty, despite Horsburgh being sent to the bin.
Horsburgh has history with Matterson, being brought to tears in their Round 7 clash in 2020, after suffering a foot injury from a tackle involving Matterson.
Horsburgh admitted he “wasn’t really thinking”.
“That’s how I play footy. I was kind of in the moment and stuff happens,” Horsburgh said.
Raiders and Queensland Origin legend Mal Meninga told Horsburgh he wondered “what the bloody hell are you doing that for?”
“Yeah, I dunno,” Horsburgh said. “It’s one of them things. You don’t think for that split second. And I let a little one go.
“That’s how I’ve been since I was young. I’m getting better. I had a little split second, I guess,” Horsburgh said.
TENSIONS ARE HIGH!
— Fox League (@FOXNRL) May 13, 2023
Corey Horsburgh gets sent to the bin for throwing a punch...👀
📺 Watch #NRLRaidersEels on ch.502 or stream on Kayo: https://t.co/AatFxsM0NY
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There is some history to the Horsburgh v Matterson incident tonight - they clashed 3 years back when Horsburgh suffered a significant Lisfranc injury in tackle seen here pic.twitter.com/07nfVYOrYg
— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) May 13, 2023
Not long after, Eels front rower Junior Paulo was placed on report for a dangerous tackle on Raiders star Joseph Tapine. Paulo came underfire after being the third man in and making contact with Tapine below the knee.
Tapine limped off the field and up the sheds with a suspected hyperextended knee, before rejoining the bench and eventually getting back on the field.
Raiders hope Joseph Tapine will be able to return tonight after suffering a right knee injury. Nasty mechanism with tackler contact causing knee to collapse in, video + strapping suggests MCL sprain. Lucky to escape with a minor injury considering mechanics of contact pic.twitter.com/ZSWOdTFW5w
— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) May 13, 2023
Former Raider Bailey Simmonson was put on report and penalised for a hip drop tackle on Jordan Rapana. Unlike Horsburgh – and Broncos backrower Patrick Carrigan on Thursday night – Simmonson stayed on the field.
While fans were entertained in the Raiders win over Parramatta, both teams’ coaches felt the standard of refereeing left much to be desired.
Eels coach Brad Arthur said “nothing went our way”.
“It’s very hard to come down to here to Canberra. But when you’ve got a 10-3 penalty count against you … we contributed to a few things. Not enough good kicks with good ball.
“But I don’t know what more I can say to the boys. Because they were stiff.
“We can’t be the best in the competition with our discipline and then get penalised 10 times tonight. We can’t be told by the referees that we’ve got great compliance and then be penalised 10 times. Can’t happen.
“I never say anything about refereeing. But I think tonight we were hard done by,” Arthur said.
Arthur also said that Junior Paulo’s penalty and report for a ‘cannonball’ tackle on Joe Tapine “wasn’t a cannonball.”
Stuart had a different view of the tackle that put Tapine in an ungainly and painful position before the front-rower hobbled off to get strapped up.
“I’m a mate of Junior’s and I don’t want to add any extra exposure to it all. But I had a player [Tapine] go off over that.
“And Corey Horsburgh [who was sin binned for punching Ryan Matterson] pushed a player in the head. And Corey got pushed in the head as well when he was held by the jumper.
“[Latrell] Mitchell last week pushed a player to the head twice and nothing happened. He was allowed to play the ball, we had a player sent to the bin,” Stuart said.
Stuart said that he felt interpretations are “changing week to week”.
“If you’re going to keep changing interpretations like that, it’s just crap. You can’t change interpretations week to week.
“I feel sorry for referees because they’re the ones under pressure because interpretations are getting changed every week. I don’t know who’s telling them.
“But why this week when you push someone in the head do you get 10 minutes in the bin and put us under pressure as a team?
“Last week, we saw a situation where you’re allowed to do that, you’re allowed to push people in the head,” Stuart said.
Stuart was glad, however, that Simmonson’s hip drop tackle did not warrant a sin bin.
“There’s been too many players laying down. Some guys, the hardest part of their night is to get up and pretend they’ve got a sore leg.
“Tackles that accidentally go wrong ... coaches do not coach hip drops. If you went into a tackle trying to do a hip drop, you would miss,” Stuart said.
CONTROVERSIAL SIN BIN LEAVES GRIFFIN ON CUSP
—Patrick Woods
The Cowboys executed a near-flawless first half as they secured their first back-to-back win of 2023, 42-22 over a hapless St George Illawarra Dragons in Townsville.
Signs were ominous when Jack De Belin scored under the posts in the third minute, but North Queensland went on to score three tries in a 10-minute period while Dragons halfback Jayden Sullivan was in the sin bin, turning the momentum of the game.
A Valentine Holmes two-point field goal as time elapsed put the perfect bow on top of a knockout 40 minutes.
Ben Hunt was unrelenting in his 300th NRL appearance, and 50th as St George skipper, appearing to score a first-half try under the posts before the bunker intervened.
The Dragons showed moments of brilliance but too often the pass went to ground and despite mounting a late comeback, it was the Cowboys who ran away with the game in the second stanza.
St George Illawarra have now won just one match of their last 17 played in Queensland – round 1 2022 against the Warriors.
Jayden Sullivan gets sent to the sin bin! 😯
— Fox League (@FOXNRL) May 13, 2023
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Dragons halfback Jayden Sullivan was sent to the sin bin halfway through the first half for holding down Kyle Feldt too long after a linebreak and his team was severely punished.
The Cowboys showed good intent immediately, turning down the potential go-ahead two points and reaping the rewards when Gosiewski latched onto a Scott Drinkwater offload to score his second try in as many games.
Tries to Heilum Luki and Tom Dearden in the ensuing eight minutes and suddenly the Red V were staring down the barrel of a sixth straight loss.
St George were lucky not to lose a player again just before halftime when Toby Couchman hip-dropped Kyle Feltd but it wasn’t picked up at the time by the referee, who called Couchman over a set later to place him on report.
CHOOKS IN CRISIS: HORROR INJURY TOLL COMPOUNDS ROBINSON’S WOES
—Matt Cleary, Wilson Smith and Russell Jackson
The Sydney Roosters’ embarrassing 48-4 loss to Penrith has been compounded by an ankle injury to five-eighth Joseph Manu.
The star No.6 suffered suspected ankle ligament damage in the heavy loss to Penrith which could see him set for an extended stint on the sideline.
It’s a disaster for coach Trent Robinson who is also without axed half Sam Walker for a few weeks after he suffered a knee injury.
Robinson said after the match he expected Walker to be available for selection the week after the bye which is round 14 against Canterbury.
The Roosters also lost prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves to a pec injury but the club was hopeful it was a minor strain.
Manu was helping Sitili Tupouniua from being driven back in a gang tackle when he fell to the ground clutching his right ankle.
The fill-in five-eighth was helped from the field with suspected ligament damage, and could be set for a lengthy stint on the sideline for the battling Roosters, now five-and-six and out of the top eight.
Joey Many off with a right ankle injury - video shows clear low/lateral ankle sprain mechanism, garden variety “rolled ankleâ€. Bark usually worse than bite (looks worse than it is), not as bad as a high ankle sprain. Provided no fracture usually a relatively quick recovery pic.twitter.com/Ie8zaslXLK
— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) May 12, 2023
On top of that enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves lasted only 17 minutes before going off with a pec injury. Waerea-Hargreaves was initially considered a chance to return to the field, but gradually lost strength in his arm, before being ruled out.
They now join an injury ward containing Connor Watson, Daniel Tupou, Paul Momirovski and Egan Butcher.
In a further blow, axed half Sam Walker also missed the Roosters NSW cup game this afternoon, and is expected to miss three weeks with a knee injury.
Alarmingly, hooker Brandon Smith also came from the field with just 20-seconds remaining on the clock.
Pressure is beginning to mount for the Roosters, who have now suffered back-to-back losses after a poor performance against the Cowboys in Magic Round.
Captain James Tedesco labelled his team’s effort “embarrassing.”
“We had a short week [after Sunday’s 20-6 loss to the Cowboys in Brisbane] and we were clear: get back to working hard for each other.
“And we probably did that for ten minutes of the game and that was it.
“It was really hard to be captain and serve that up. It’s embarrassing … try after try, it was hard to keep the boys positive behind the posts,” Tedesco said.
Robinson took full ownership of the loss in the post match press-conference, admitting he failed to get his side ready to compete.
“We are not moving for each other. Things like kick pressures, kick chases have fallen completely away. We got an incredible lesson tonight.”
“You can talk about attack and defence but you can talk about getting the team ready to play and ready to compete and I haven’t done that in the last two weeks.
“We got bitten pretty hard tonight so that’s on me so I have to make sure I get that right and turn it around pretty quickly.”
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