The Knights win first game in 335 days, beating Titans 34-26

THE drought is over. It’s taken 335 days but the Knights have finally found an NRL win, beating the Titans 34-26 in Newcastle.

Nathan Ross celebrates scoring a try with team mates Danny Levi and Trent Hodkinson.

THE drought is over.

It’s taken 335 days but the Newcastle Knights have finally found an NRL win.

Two late tries to Peter Mata’utia and Nathan Ross handed the Knights a 34-26 win against a brave Gold Coast Titans side who went close to pulling off a miracle win under enormous adversity.

The Titans were forced to play for more than half the match with just one bench player after injuries to fullback Jarryd Hayne, winger Anthony Don and hooker Karl Lawton left them severely depleted.

After a week of controversy, Hayne left the field 10 minutes from halftime with an ankle injury and didn’t return.

Jarryd Hayne leaves the ground after sustaining an injury.

Knights coach Nathan Brown was thrilled after breaking the lengthy drought.

“I’m really happy for everyone, from the fans to the players to the Old Boys who were here today. It was quite evident that winning hasn’t been around for a while for a lot of the young kids,” he said.

“That’s why it feels so good to have a win.”

Newcastle captain Trent Hodkinson said the victory had been “a long time coming and it took a lot of hard work”.

“There are a lot of new guys here that are wanting to buy into what we are building here and it was a big relief to be honest, especially to do it in front of our home fans. Good feeling but we’ve got another tough match next week,” he said.

As well as Hayne, the Titans had Anthony Don and Karl Lawton nursing dislocated shoulders.

“We had a lot of our middle men play big minutes and quite a few guys were out of position due to our injuries so it’s a brave performance but in the end, it’s not two points and we need to be able to get out decisions right when we can still control the game and execution let us down a little bit,” Gold Coast coach Neil Henry said.

“You can safely say none of those three will play next week and it could be a lot longer but we will know a bit more in a day or two.”

Nathan Ross celebrates scoring a try and sealing the win.

When Ash Taylor produced a sublime cross-field kick for Konrad Hurrell to score for a 26-22 lead with 11 minutes left, it appeared the Knights’ 19-game losing streak would be extended.

But a crucial Tyrone Roberts kick out on the full gave the Knights the last shot.

And with five minutes left Mata’utia put his side back in front when he crashed off before Ross completed his double to send the home crowd in raptures.

Newcastle’s last win came on their home ground against the Wests Tigers in round six last year.

Three unanswered tries in the final 12 minutes of the first half gave the Titans a 16-12 advantage at the break.

The Knights made all the early running with fullback Brendan Elliot giving the hosts a 6-0 advantage after 18 minutes with a try off a Brock Lamb pass.

They doubled their advantage not long after with interchange prop Jack Stockwell running a good line off a Mitch Barnett pass to storm over from close range.

It took a freakish bounce and a clever bat back from winger Anthony Don for the Gold Coast to finally get on the board with a try to Konrad Hurrell to reduce the margin to 12-6.

It was in his pursuit of Taylor’s kick that led to the try that Hayne suffered his injury.

The Knights should have found themselves 18-6 up after an innocuous Lamb kick was allowed to bounce with winger Ken Sio pouncing to score.

Dane Gagai takes on the Titans defence.

But inexplicably, the Knights outside backs were all off-side and the chance went begging.

The Knights paid a big price for the schoolboy error a minute later with Taylor squeezing a pass out the back despite the attention of three defenders for Lawton to scurry over next to the posts.

The Knights again had a try disallowed by the video referee after Mata’utia dived over in the corner with Ross ruled to have knocked on a Hodkinson kick in the lead-up.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

An Elliot fumble at the scrumbase gifted the Titans one last shot before halftime and Tyrone Roberts delivered against his old club, putting his cousin Tyronne Roberts-Davis over in the corner.

Newcastle hit back early in the second half through Ross to level things up before the Titans produced their entry for try of the year after a movement that included two kicks and saw the ball pass through no less than 11 sets of hands before Joe Greenwood finished it off.

A crucial penalty gave the Knights field position and they found themselves back in front when Lamb held the pass back beautifully for Sam Stone to score his first NRL try.

Originally published as The Knights win first game in 335 days, beating Titans 34-26