Clinical Melbourne down error-riddle Newcastle 28-10 in the Hunter
CAMERON Smith has paid Kalyn Ponga the ultimate accolade following Melbournes 28-10 win over Newcastle, proclaiming the Knights sensation is a must for Origin II.
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IN one of his poorer performances of the season, Newcastle’s Kalyn Ponga still impressed former Maroons captain Cameron Smith enough to declare he’s a must-have for Origin II.
The Knights went down 28-10 to Melbourne in an error-riddled effort at McDonald Jones Stadium in which they completed at just 66 per cent.
It was testing conditions with a howling westerly wind, but neither players nor coach were willing to blame their performance on that, declaring they were going for the big play instead of protecting possession against a team that can punish you.
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Even though Ponga said he pushed too many passes early in the match, Smith said the Storm outside backs struggled to control to enigmatic fullback.
“I think he is ready,” Smith said. “He’s a special player. He’s been outstanding all year but even today in a losing side, he created issues for us all day.
“I thought we did a fairly good job on him and we knew we had to. Still, we put numbers around him and he still caused some issues.
“Even talking to our outside back there after the game, just saying that when they come up to defend him and they think they have him in a position to contain him, he just changes position really quickly and they’re beaten.
“I think he has to be there, just given the situation for Queensland.
“It’s a must-win game, we all know that. I think Kevvie understands that and he needs someone there who can create opportunities for the team and can win a game and certainly Kalyn Ponga is a player who can do that.”
Ponga ran for 171 metres and pushed over from dummy-hal for a try in the first half and played a part in the Knights’ second in the corner early in the second half. However several passes went to ground or behind the player early in the game which is what led to coach Nathan Brown saying he “didn’t think he was very good”.
The whole Knights team suffered with execution. At the halftime break they’d committed nine errors to the Storm’s one and by fulltime it stood at 17-8.
Against a team like Melbourne, it’s a performance a side just can’t afford.
Two of the Storm’s Origin stars were at the ready to punish the errors, Cameron Munster and Josh Addo-Carr playing a part in long-range tries in each half that swung the match back in Melbourne’s favour.
The first came when scores were tied at six near the break as Newcastle attacked from 10 out. Addo-Carr read a Connor Watson attempt to grubber through and trapped it with his feet where Munster picked it up then sent his flying winger away 70 metres to score. .
It was an almost identical finish to one that came 15 minutes into the second half.
The Storm led by just six when Munster slipped through an Aiden Guerra-tackle on the restart from penalty conversion.
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Munster again found Addo-Carr on his shoulder and the scoring play took the Storm’s lead to 12 the game away from the Knights, another try five minutes making it final.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy was pleased with his team’s ability to adapt to the conditions and take advantage when chances presented themselves.
“It would have been a tough day handling (with the wind) but probably one of the things that worked in our favour, we completed a lot better than the Knights,” he said.
“The Knights have been completing really well for most of the year but they made a lot of mistakes today and we didn’t make that many mistakes so it really helped us build some pressure.”
MELBOURNE 28 (J Addo-Carr 2 R Jacks S Vunivalu tries C Smith 6 goals) bt NEWCASTLE 10 (K Ponga K Sio tries K Ponga goal) at McDonald Jones Stadium. Referee: Chris Butler, Adam Gee. Crowd: 14,803
Originally published as Clinical Melbourne down error-riddle Newcastle 28-10 in the Hunter
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