2007 Round 13 vs Wests Tigers:
Wests 33 defeated Newcastle 14.
Newcastle went down 33-14 to Wests, but it took a titanic effort by Wests to emerge victorious, in front of 13,609 emotional fans, after a week of flooding and storms in the Hunter. There was even talk of calling the match off, but to the ground staff’s credit, the pitch was in immaculate condition. A young Newcastle side, lacking injured players and Origin reps, braved the conditions to put in an A+ effort that almost saw them pull off what would have been a historic victory.
Newcastle were first on the board, running into a gale in the opening half. After 19 minutes halfback Luke Walsh delayed a pass to put Cory Paterson into a hole close to the line. The try was reminiscent of Cliff Lyons to Steve Menzies, with Walsh looking just as good in this match as his debut the week before.
Wests hit back with close range tries - first to Robbie Farah, then Chris Heighington. And just as both sides were looking to the break, Newcastle scored the try of the match in the 38th minute. Luke Walsh accelerated into a gap from 40 metres out. He gave the ball to Nathan Hinton who found Brad Tighe. Tighe easily stepped past Taniela Tuiaki to race over the tryline. The missed conversion left the halftime score 12-8 to Wests.
The breeze died off in the second half, but it was still Newcastle who started with all the running. A long pass by Chris Bailey found Brad Tighe in more space, and he again stepped inside to race 40 metres to score. The conversion by Cory Paterson made the score 14-12 to the Knights.
But showing their inexperience, the game slipped away from Newcastle. Dean Collis chased down a grubber kick in the 57th minute, setting up a six point lead to the visitors. Newcastle had their chances to reply, most notably when Kade Snowden lost the ball inside Wests' 20, but the Tigers eventually wrapped it up with a field goal, then two late tries.
Newcastle suffered through match ending injuries to Kirk Reynoldson and Luke MacDougall. The best on the ground for the Knights were Luke Walsh, Chris Bailey and Brad Tighe, along with most of the forwards, who worked very hard.
What they said:
Brian Smith:
"I don't think we lost any support today. We may have struggled at the back end of the game, but that was understandable because losing 'Renno' and Luke really stretched our resources."
"We all thought we were a good chance at half-time and the way we started the second half was encouraging, but then there were a few things we didn't execute well - and that opened the door for them."
"I thought our boys really dug deep for us and they had a pop."