2008 Trial vs Cronulla Sutherland Sharks:
Newcastle 26 defeated Cronulla Sutherland 24.
A remarkable 22-point comeback against Cronulla meant Newcastle remained undefeated for the second straight pre-season. The Knights trailed by 24 points to 4 with 23 minutes remaining, but in a stunning turn-around took their chances and came roaring back into the match to win 26-24.
The match was played in cold and slippery conditions, meaning things got a little scrappy at times. That didn't stop Cronulla from dominating the match in it’s early stages, however. Misi Taulapapa opened the scoring, and it took until the 22nd minute for Kurt Gidley to even the scores when he crossed out wide. Cronulla scored the next four tries though, and looked to have the match by the throat.
Jarrod Mullen got Newcastle back in the match in the 57th minute when he scored himself, then kicked for Junior Sau to score in the 61st and put Gidley over for his second in the 65th. That brought the score back to 22-24 and the Knights had the momentum. With Kurt Gidley and Danny Buderus off the field for the final ten minutes, Scott Dureau put Junior Sau in space for his second try and the match-winner - a 45 metre run to the line.
Cronulla still had a trick up their sleeve close to fulltime when Grant Millington looked to have scored from a Blake Green grubber, but he was ruled offside, giving Newcastle the penalty and the match.
As the Warriors did a fortnight ago, Cronulla rested a lot of their top players in the second half, but this took nothing off the gloss of the Knights amazing comeback (who also rested many of their stars in the second stanza). The already-injured Ben Cross (broken wrist) and Mitchell Sargent (pneumonia) are expected to be the only absentees from round one in two week's time.
What they said:
Brian Smith:
[On the suspect defence] "I'm not sure if we got questions or answers tonight. We probably got a few answers, but we've certainly still got some questions and some issues yet, but I think every team has at this time of year. We'll try to get across them in two weeks time."
[On the young players] "They didn't look out of place. They did the job. As a team that's still coming together for us, it's probably a bit more important to have had two big comeback wins like we've had in the pre-season. That gives us a bit of confidence."
"We can certainly do without a shellacking, and when the Sharks were in full groove early on there, it was going to take something to come back. I thought our boys showed plenty of spirit much the same as they did against the Warriors.
"I'd rather us be defending solid leads. That was part of our problem last year in that we just couldn't get in charge of stuff right at the beginning of games, so that's still a big goal for us. But it's a great sign of our spirit, and our conditioning. We came through with no major injuries, touch wood, so all up the trials have been pretty good."
Ricky Stuart:
"The trial certainly served its purpose, we got our main squad some good footy for 50 minutes. It was five tries to one at half-time and I was very happy with that."
"It wasn't going to prove anything to me by having the nucleus of the team that is going to be playing game one out there for anymore minutes than what I had to. I achieved what I was after tonight in the first-half and basically got out of there."