2006 Round 5 vs St George Illawarra Dragons:
Newcastle 54 defeated St George Illawarra 6.
In what started as a classic arm wrestle of a match, Newcastle ran out 54-6 victors over a lame St George Illawarra outfit on their home WIN Stadium. The Dragons began the game with a roar, setting up camp in the Knights 20-metre zone. Newcastle withstood 3 consecutive sets of six, then another 2 consecutive sets, before running up 4 tries in the final 12 minutes of the half to set up an unexpected lead.
The first scoring play was an Andrew Johns penalty in the 18th minute, but it took until the 28th for either side to crack the defence for a try. Newcastle spread the ball out wide, and fast hands by Clint Newton, then Matthew Gidley, allowed Brian Carney to scoot over from close range. The conversion by Johns was wayward, and Newcastle lead 6-0.
From the next set of six the Knights were over again. A bomb by Andrew Johns into the strong wind (blowing against Newcastle in the first half) bamboozled Ben Hornby who lost the ball close to his own line. Anthony Quinn picked up, but looked to have bombed a try when he ran infield. He somehow offloaded to George Carmont, however, who got the ball down.
From the kick-off Newcastle ran in their third try without the Dragons touching the ball. An Andrew Johns 40-20 took them downfield, and inside the 20 a nice set play yielded a try. Kurt Gidley ran cross-field, giving the ball to Matthew Gidley running cross field in the other direction. Milton Thaiday then steamed onto a pass running straight and hard, and dotted down under the posts untouched.
The last scoring act of the first half was initiated by a break by Brian Carney from 40 metres out, courtesy of an Andrew Johns pass. Carney, confronted by 2 defenders in the corner, passed back inside to Johns, who was still backing up on the inside. The conversion to Johns made the score 24-0 at halftime, an astonishing lead given the arm-wrestle of the first 28 minutes.
There was no relent for St George Illawarra in the second stanza. Riley Brown crossed 3 minutes after the break thanks to a Daniel Tolar offload. Tolar made what seemed like a regulation hit-up close to the St George Illawarra tryline, but showed presence of mind to look for the offload, which Riley Brown, proving equally alert, was only too happy to accept. Andrew Johns converted and it was now 30-0.
George Carmont was the next across the line in what was fast becoming a procession. From 10 metres out he simply put a step on his opposite Daryl Millard and muscled his way across. The 60th minute saw Carmont in the action again. From 40 metres out Danny Buderus threw him a lovely cut-out pass which put him in space. He made a 20 metre dash before giving the ball back to Buderus, who then found Kurt Gidley, who went over underneath the black dot. Johns again converted and it was now 42-0.
The 65th minute saw a brilliant 35 metre individual try by Danny Buderus (the 50th of his career, only the second hooker behind Luke Priddis to reach that mark). Running out of dummy-half he beat 4 tacklers on his way to the line, most memorably putting a big fend on the last line of defence Ben Hornby. The final scoring act by Newcastle was a try to Anthony Quinn. Inside the St George Illawarra 20 Andrew Johns gave a second-man pass to Milton Thaiday, who then rocketed a pass to Anthony Quinn who crossed in the corner. The sideline conversion left Newcastle 52-0 up.
With 3 minutes left the Dragons opened their account. Near halfway Trent Barrett chip kicked for Ben Hornby.It was then a case of moving it through the hands and Colin Best crossed in the corner.
Newcastle were left reflecting on an outstanding performance, one of their most complete for several seasons. Finals-like defence in the first half gave way to comprehensive attack in the second, as St George Illawarra were mercilessly put to the sword. It was an especially fitting way for Matthew Gidley to celebrate his 200th first grade game for the red and blue side. The Dragons would be pondering where it all went wrong. The Knights whirlwind set into action after a tight first half-hour, and without even so much as an error, they found themselves 24-0 behind at the break. If that was tough to combat, their second half performance was poor, leaving their big home crowd extremely disappointed. The win set up a mouth-watering clash between the two top sides - Newcastle and North Queensland - in one weeks time.
What they said:
Andrew Johns:
"It's out of this world to think we could come down here and win by that score. But so many other factors have to happen for me to play well. Look, put me behind a forward pack that's not going forward and I can't play well."
"Our forwards are going sensationally at the moment, our young guys off the bench are stepping up, they're providing me with a lot of room to do my work. It's not just me and I'm embarrassed people think that. It's a whole team effort. Everyone did their jobs to the best of their ability. People just talk about me for some reason, but I think the whole side deserves a rap. Our young forwards are playing out of their skin. I'm proud of them."
"I suppose when we've had our full complement of players we've put big scores on a few teams, but you don't want to get ahead of yourself. But it's a good side, we've just got to make sure we stay injury free and keep our feet on the ground."
"The pleasing aspect for me, and I'd say Mick Hagan especially, was our defence. Our ruck defence is just phenomenal, our forwards are just getting through that much work and playing out of their skin."
"It was a great win, but they were understrength without their Test props."
"We're all looking forward to playing the Cowboys. It will be a great test for me against Johnathan Thurston and a great test for our whole side. We'll have 30,000 fans there (at Newcastle) and can't wait."
Nathan Brown:
"Joey - what can you say? You're not going to see another player like him in a hundred years."