Newcastle survive controversial call to outlast Cronulla 14-8 in the Hunter
Newcastle have shown a toughness they’ve lacked for years after outlasting Cronulla 14-8 to get their 2019 season off to the best possible start.
Knights
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The willingness of coaches Nathan Brown and John Morris to play down a controversial penalty try late in Newcastle’s first-up win over Cronulla may keep the NRL’s referees out of the spotlight for now.
It could have stolen the headlines when video ref Ashley Klein awarded the penalty try to Sharks’ winger Sione Katoa after Edrick Lee interfered on his chase on a kick in goal.
Josh Dugan failed to cleanly ground the ball but his team still got the four-pointer.
Lee made up for it next set though when he read a familiar play on his old club and took an intercept to race 85 metres and score and seal the game for the Knights.
“I sort of recognised it, they played it in the first half,” Lee said.
“I didn’t know the move until I got to replay it in my head at halftime. I sort of recognised the shape and the personnel with who started it with Andrew (Fifita).
“I just managed to back myself.”
It broke a gritty deadlock and sent 21,813 fans home happy.
METRE MAN
David Klemmer was hailed as the master signing for Newcastle and he quickly proved his worth.
The prop forward ran straight and hard, going right up the middle for his new club and clocking 108 metres by the halftime break; 170 when the first try was scored and 186 by the time the final siren rang.
Ably supported by the rest of his pack, it allowed the Knights to play a lot of football at the Sharks’ end and showed they now have a pack to take on the competition.
“I think all those blokes, Jimmy Gavet, Klem, Glas. Then the Siones and Lachy Fitzes, they look and train like they’re ready to show they can handle first grade on a consistent basis,” coach Nathan Brown said.
FINDING PONGA
The talk of the Connor Watson-Kalyn Ponga positional switch will continue for now.
The Knights five-eighth was the second option in attack and had just 22 possessions to Pearce’s 52.
He twice came to a standstill with ball in hand as options shut down and lacked the unpredictability fans came to know in 2018.
“The attack will come. That’s the least of our concern,” Brown said.
“I thought his attitude to the game and defence and commitment to kicking and chasing and let’s say not doing high-risk footy was very good.
“The combinations and positions we need to get KP in will improve.
“The sides are more aware of KP now and we need to adapt our game around that as well; the way defenders are going to defend him.”
NEW FACES
Newcastle is no one-man band.
Their new recruits stood out in their first appearance in the red and blue. Klemmer led the pack, Tim Glasby scored on debut for the club, as did Edrick Lee.
Lee was a clear candidate for best on field. He shut down two Sharks’ breaks down his wing and though it was his interference on Sione Katoa that led to the penalty try, he shook it off and cancelled it out with his matchwinning intercept try next set.
“I was just happy that we won a game when Kalyn Ponga and Pearcey weren’t the star players,” Brown said.
“If we’d come here tonight and said we were going to win and Pearcey and Kalyn weren’t going to be in the best three or four players, everyone would have laughed at us.”
CONVERSION RATE
For all the ball the Knights had in the first half, they should have had more points on the board. The two teams went into halftime 0-0, but Newcastle had enjoyed 60 per cent possession, a figure that didn’t really drop below that for the entire first 40.
Several chances went begging, and it went both ways. The Sharks didn’t have as much ball as their opposition, but broke the line three times. They weren’t able to convert - the penalty try and a penalty goal their only ways of scoring.
It was frustrating for coach Morris.
“Our ball handling. You can’t expect to win any game of footy when making 12 errors. I think we completed at about 65 per cent,” he said.
“It was our focus going into the game. We spoke about it all week, just making sure we;’re hanging onto the footy and playing quite simple and getting through our sets but we just put too much pressure on ourselves.”
NEWCASTLE 14 (T Glasby E Lee tries K Ponga 3 goals) bt CRONULLA 8 (S Katoa try S Johnson 2 goals) at McDonald Jones Stadium. Referee: Phil Henderson, Peter Gough. Crowd: 21,813
Originally published as Newcastle survive controversial call to outlast Cronulla 14-8 in the Hunter
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