Match Details
Match Date	30th Jun, 2018
Opponent	Newcastle
Result	Win 36-16
Coach	Dean Pay
Captain	Josh Jackson
Venue	Newcastle (McDonald Jones Stadium)
Crowd	17,755
Referee	Henry Perenara Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski

Canterbury ruled a line under a difficult month with a desperately needed win over an injury-ravaged Newcastle last night.

The Knights lost Kalyn Ponga (hamstring) and Slade Griffin (knee) during the first half as the Dogs snapped a four-game losing streak. Days after his stunning State of Origin debut, Ponga is racing to be fit for State of Origin III.

‘‘He’ll have a scan tomorrow,’’ Knights coach Nathan Brown said of Ponga. ‘‘Any time someone is coming off after 10 minutes or so, there’s always got to be concern whether they can turn themselves around quick. In saying that, he played 60 minutes in Origin the other day and I didn’t think he was going to do that either. I wouldn’t rule him out, but I don’t know the extent of it.’’

Brown said Griffin, who made his Test debut for New Zealand last weekend, was taken to hospital amid fears he had suffered the fourth ACL tear of his career.

Canterbury lost 494 games worth of NRL experience when Moses Mbye and Aaron Woods made mid-season departures and Kieran Foran (foot) and Raymond Faitala-Mariner (knee) suffered season-ending injuries. Their season hit a low ebb with the 32-10 pasting at the hands of Gold Coast before the representative-round bye, when coach Dean Pay said they paid the price for a lacklustre preparation. However, they didn’t make the same mistake in the leadup to their clash with the Knights.

‘‘It just wasn’t up to standard, our preparation. The boys, they spoke about it – it wasn’t just me,’’ Pay said. ‘‘We’ve got a really strong leadership group – Josh Jackson and David Klemmer and Adam Elliott and Aiden Tolman. All these type of guys, they’re strong characters and they said themselves it was unacceptable.’’

Five-eighth Lachlan Lewis, the nephew of Queensland great Wally Lewis, was solid in his first match despite copping plenty of treatment from the Knights, while Pay also blooded forward Ofahiki Ogden.

After being reduced to 15 men in the first half, the young Knights didn’t have enough in the tank as the Dogs rebounded.

They led 16-12 at the break thanks to a Connor Watson double but the Dogs turned the corner in the second term.

Winger Reimis Smith took advantage of a big overlap to go over then three minutes later put it on the toe for Jeremy Marshall-King to score. When Fa’amanu Brown burrowed over from dummy-half in the 73rd, it put the result beyond doubt before skipper Jackson scored a deserved try on the bell.

‘‘Our left edge didn’t have a day they’d be happy with,’’ Brown said. ‘‘But I think we competed and our forwards worked really hard to force errors. It was more our decision-making that cost us. People might laugh at me looking at the result but at 24-16 we gave ourselves some good opportunities.’’

Source: The Sun Herald

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