2007 Round 2 vs St George Illawarra Dragons:
Newcastle 16 defeated St George Illawarra 12.
Newcastle scored their second win in as many starts for 2007, this time with a scrappy victory over St George Illawarra at Oki Jubilee Stadium. Newcastle scored four tries to two, but in a frustrating match to watch, only grabbed the lead in the final 13 minutes, with poor goalkicking by the Knights keeping the Dragons in the match until the final siren.
St George Illawarra kicked off the scoring in the fifth minute, when Wes Naiqama kicked a penalty goal, but it was Newcastle who opened the try scoring. Clint Newton found space from ten metres out running off a short Jarrod Mullen pass in the ninth minute, and despite an unnecessary swivel, got the ball down. St George Illawarra did not take long to hit back though, with Chase Stanley scoring off a Ben Hornby grubber in the 16th minute.
It looked as if the Dragons would go to halftime with a 6-4 lead, but Newcastle made a raid downfield, and Wes Naiqama made one of the biggest offside tackles on Adam MacDougall in recent memory. Wes was dispatched to the sin-bin, and Newcastle quickly found an overlap on the opposite side of the field, James McManus dotting down in the corner for his second try in as many first-grade matches. Kurt Gidley's missed conversion left the score 8-4 in Newcastle's favour.
The Dragons hit back 11 minutes into the second half, with the try of the match. Josh Morris got around Daniel Abraham deep inside St George Illawarra territory, and found Keith Lulia, who had an unopposed run to the tryline. Naiqama provided the only conversion of the match, and the Dragons went ahead 12-8.
Both sides had plenty of chances to score further points, particularly the Dragons, who squandered numerous chances. Eventually Newcastle provided the knock-out blow, however, with two tries between the 67th and 71st minutes. First Brad Tighe capitalised on good field position, when running off a select Daniel Abraham pass, and then George Carmont found himself on the end of a fluid backline spread. Both conversions were missed, but it was enough to give Newcastle the lead 16-12, and advantage, which they maintained until the final hooter.
Newcastle notched their first win without Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus in ten years, and would have been satisfied with the two points, despite a less than polished performance. James McManus performed well again, and Daniel Abraham and Kurt Gidley were the other standouts for Newcastle. Jarrod Mullen was quiet, looking to be troubled by some sort of injury.
What they said:
Brian Smith:
"We could well be sitting here with no points at all, so to have four points and not have played as well as we can yet (is good)."
"I hope we improve as much as they will. They'll play better than that and we need to find that as well."
[On Johns' absence] "You can't have it both ways. You can't have great players like that in your team and develop the team harmony and structure and the communication and the expertise and then not have them and expect everyone else to function as smoothly."
"I'm hopeful (he'll be back to play the Raiders) but he couldn't even train (on Friday). We didn't want him to train but he wasn't up for it, so he's not a lay down at this stage to be available. But he's not sleeping all day and he doesn't have any headaches so he's on the mend."
Jarrod Mullen:
"We stuck to our game plan, we knew that Joey or Bedsy weren't playing all week so there was no excuse for us out there - it was 13 men on 13 men."
"When Joey plays, I'm sort of second tier but if he's not playing I suppose I'm first tier. I get my hands on the ball a lot more often when he's not there and I like it that way."
[On the closeness of the match] "We thought we'd get there in the end. They were young and inexperienced, the speed of first grade football, it's a quicker and the last 10 minutes of the game. That's when your rear end's hanging out."
Steve Simpson:
[On winning without Johns and Buderus] "It's been a bit of a monkey on our back for a while. When Joey and Bedsy are there, they're such great players they see a lot of things in front of them. But we've been putting a few different things in place. Brian's been great."
"Every player takes a bit more responsibility about getting us to the right part of the field and (we're) not just relying on our halves. It's been great to take the pressure off them. Everyone's attitude's changed a bit, too."
Nathan Brown:
"There was a chance there to win and we didn't take our chances. To Newcastle's credit they took their chance and they were just too good on the night. The effort was great, we improve some things there's no reason why we can't win some games."