2007 Round 7 vs Cronulla Sutherland Sharks:
Newcastle 20 defeated Cronulla Sutherland 16.
Cronulla rode into town with a defensive record that had many talking them up, but Newcastle cut them to shreds in the middle of the second half - winning comfortably, despite what the scoreline said. It was three tries a-piece, but the Knights looked the better side for the enitre match, and were never really challenged.
Right from the first set, Newcastle took it forward with great enthusiasm, but it was Cronulla who scored the first try. After a Kurt Gidley penalty put Newcastle ahead in the 13th, Cronulla worked the ball downfield. Spreading the ball wide inside Newcastle's 20, Cronulla pulled Adam MacDougall off his line, and the huge hole was capitalised upon by David Simmons who crossed in the corner. Newcastle had the numbers in defence had MacDougall and to a lesser extent Todd Polglase stayed out wide.
The Knights managed to hit back right on halftime to lead at the break. Jarrod Mullen threw a cut-out pass to Brad Tighe on the halfway line, who passed to James McManus who took off downfield. He found Mullen inside, but Mullen was tackled. Danny Buderus then tried to duck over from dummy half, before offloading to Kirk Reynoldson who did well to back up and cross for his first try of the year.
Another cut-out pass found Cronulla on the hop after halftime, this time by Kurt Gidley. He gave it to Todd Polglase, who found Adam MacDougall on the inside, who ate up the metres before giving it back to Gidley who scored. From the next set the Knights crossed again to virtually seal it. This time Jarrod Mullen just found a big hole to run into from 40 metres out, and gave it inside to Kirk Reynoldson, who again backed up well to score his second, making it 20-4.
Cronulla had some luck in hitting back late, in the 71st minute. First they got the ball when Paul Gallen stomped Jesse Royal's hand, then they got a repeat set when they knocked on. In the end Ben Pomery found his way through the MacDougall - Polglase combination to cross out wide.
The final try by Cronulla was a cracker - Brett Kimmorley chipped on his own 40 metre line, Brett Kearney took it, then corkscrew kicked for David Simmons who took it on the full to score. The commentators went off their head talking up a Cronulla comeback with 5 to go, but given the luck involved in the two comeback tries to the Sharks - it was never going to happen.
McManus, Buderus, Mullen, Simpson, Reynoldson and Gidley were the best of the Knights. The four man bench that boasted only eight games between them (plus two debutants) performed admirably.
What they said:
Brian Smith:
"That was a tremendous effort from a mixed up team."
"At the moment, we haven't got that precision, those combinations at this point that are going to blow other teams away. We have a lot more work to do to get that part and that is going to take some time."
"So we are in for more of those so if you are a Newcastle fan, take your heart pills, get your patience and whatever else you are likely to need because that's how we are likely to win in the next little while."
Ricky Stuart:
"We weren't there tonight and we spoke about it this morning. I was very paranoid about a lot of things and spoke about it again an hour before the game."
"We weren't the team tonight we have been. We have people saying we can win the comp. It's a joke, we are nowhere near winning a comp. We are nowhere near making the eight. It's very disappointing because when you are realistic about it, we have beaten no-one this year so far."
"Our attack was a debacle. They had a lot of second grade or Premier league players playing tonight but I think we matched them in that area."