Round 9
Newcastle Knights 24 d. New Zealand Warriors 18

2007 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Knights stun Warriors with late comeback to steal victory
Sat May 12, 2007
Source: www.warriors.co.nz

Adam MacDougall's 79th minute try broke the Vodafone Warriors' hearts yet again as Newcastle came back from 6-18 down to snatch victory at EnergyAustralia Stadium tonight (Saturday).

When hooker Nathan Fien was awarded a disputed try in the 52nd minute, his side was on track for its third straight win in Newcastle in as many years.

With 12 minutes left the Vodafone Warriors still led by 12 points but a disappointing final stanza enabled the home side to escape.

At the heart of the comeback was brilliant fullback Kurt Gidley who cut up the vistors' defence to race in for tries twice within eight minutes. He also converted both to even the score up at 18-18.

With three minutes remaining, the scene was set for a desperate effort to win from each side. Or maybe there was a prospect of golden point extra time. It didn't happen that way.

Trying to bring the ball out of their end, the Vodafone Warriors lost possession, the Knights formed the scrum swiftly and then set about trying to construct the killer blow. They didn't fail. Just when they seemed set to go for a field goal play, they swung the ball left instead, a wide pass handing MacDougall a cruise to the line for what turned out to be the matchwinner. Gidley capped it with his fourth conversion of the night.

Just seconds remained but efforts to produce a magical play came to nothing when Evarn Tuimavave's restart sailed into touch on the full. For the second successive week, the Vodafone Warriors had been undone. Cronulla had shut them out 22-20, hanging on for the last 18 minutes or so to secure victory in Auckland. Now the Vodafone Warriors found themselves run down when they had been the front runners rather than the chasers.

Earlier the match had a near-perfect start for them. Smart football created the opening try in the 13th minute for Ruben Wiki, who started the match in the second row. Running the perfect line he was put into a hole by Grant Rovelli for his first try of the season, Lance Hohaia's conversion on target for a 6-0 lead.

That doubled seven minutes later when standoff Jerome Ropati showed some real skill to snare his first four-pointer of the year in just his second match back from injury. The Knights were deep on attack and poked through a kick which Ropati intercepted with his foot, the ball popping up for him to regather. Suddenly, 80 metres from Newcastle's line, he had possession with no one in front of him - and no one really came close to him as he sprinted away for the try. With Hohaia's conversion, the Vodafone Warriors were in good shape at 12-0.

But nine minutes from halftime they invited Newcastle back into it, a penalty enabling the Knights to head back into enemy territory. They then put together some nice plays, finishing with second rower Steve Simpson scoring. Gidley's conversion had them right in it at the break at 6-12.

A bizarre start to the second spell saw both sides trading an astonishing number of errors as Newcastle failed to complete five of their first six sets while the Vodafone Warriors were only marginally better with three from six. But when the Vodafone Warriors finally managed to mount some pressure and continuity they had success. It came controversially when Fien grubbered through to Newcastle's line, negotiated his way around Clint Newton and got his hand to the loose ball. The contention was Fien may have impeded Newton and then there was the question of whether Fien had beaten Newton to force the ball. All the questions were rendered irrelevant when the try was awarded. With Hohaia converting - on a night when all seven shots at goal succeeded - the Vodafone Warriors had an invaluable 18-6 lead.

In the end it wasn't enough. In Gidley and the clever Jarrod Mullen, Newcastle had two players who were constant threats on attack and ultimately they turned the match.

It left the Vodafone Warriors with four wins and four losses from eight matches, a result that sees them falling out of the top four for the first time in a month.

They're back home to take on Wests Tigers at Mt Smart Stadium next Sunday afternoon. For that match, suspended players Wade McKinnon, Tony Martin and Michael Witt will be available again.

Apart from Gidley's obvious heroics there were plenty of other individuals highlights tonight.

Newcastle gained more than 1500 metres, eight players with 100-plus metres to their name (Gidley with 191 metres).

The Vodafone Warriors weren't too far adrift with 1485 metres, five players bettering the 100-metre mark with Evarn Tuimavave credited with 99 metres on the night.

The best as usual was Steve Price with 194 metres while fullback Patrick Ah Van made 159, Ropati 147, Louis Anderson 130 and Wiki 125.

Unlike last week, the defensive loads were even, identical in fact with the statistics posted after the match showing each team made a total of 316 tackles. Micheal Luck - once more - Price and Ropati were the busiest with 29 tackles each, Luck notably with no misses at all.

Match details:

At EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle:
Newcastle Knights 24 (Kurt Gidley 2, Steve Simpson, Adam MacDougall tries; Kurt Gidley 4 conversions).
Vodafone Warriors 18 (Ruben Wiki, Jerome Ropati, Nathan Fien tries; Lance Hohaia 3 conversions).
Halftime: 12-6 Vodafone Warriors.
Referee: Tony Archer.

News sent by: www.warriors.co.nz


Hohaia, Gatis and Lawrie back for Warriors against Knights
Tue May 8, 2007
Source: www.warriors.co.nz

Vodafone Warriors utility Lance Hohaia, hooker George Gatis and back row forward Corey Lawrie return to the line-up for Saturday night's ninth-round NRL encounter with the Knights in Newcastle.

Two changes were forced with centre Tony Martin and standoff Michael Witt landing one-match suspensions after taking early guilty pleas on dangerous throw charges from last weekend's loss to Cronulla.

The third change sees Lawrie being brought onto the interchange for fellow back rower Epalahame Lauaki, who had been on the bench for each of the Vodafone Warriors' first seven matches of the season. Lauaki will now play for the Vodafone Auckland Lions in their New South Wales Premier League match against the Knights.

Martin and Witt plus fullback Wade McKinnon - who's serving a two-match ban - will available again for the May 20 home clash against Wests Tigers.

Hohaia, who has missed the Vodafone Warriors' last two matches with a stress reaction in his left fibula, slots into Martin's spot at right centre, while Jerome Ropati takes over from Witt at standoff. Ropati had his first NRL game of the year against Cronulla last weekend.

"It's difficult having three players suspended this week but there's not a lot we can do about that," said head coach Ivan Cleary.

"We have to work around that and we have the depth in our squad to be able to cover the positions. It's certainly helpful that Lance was ready to play again this week."

With both first-choice kickers - Martin and Witt - sidelined, Hohaia is also set to assume the goal kicking responsibilities in what will be his 90th first-grade game. The 24-year-old, who started each of the first four matches of the year at left centre, is in line to become the 12th player to appear in 100 NRL matches for the Vodafone Warriors.

Cleary is demanding a vast improvement on the performance in the 20-22 loss to Cronulla, the first time the Sharks had won in Auckland since 1999.

It was a game that saw the Vodafone Warriors making an astonishing 413 tackles to just 291 by Cronulla. The difference in the second half was extreme, the home side with 230 tackles compared to just 120 by the visitors.

Topping the tackle count yet again, as he has so regularly this season, was loose forward Micheal Luck with 47. In the side's last four matches he has made a total of 171 tackles, an average of almost 43 a game.

Saturday's match moves winger Todd Byrne with four games of making his 100th first-grade appearance.

VODAFONE WARRIORS v NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle
5.30pm, Saturday, May 12, 2007

1 Patrick Ah Van
2 Todd Byrne
3 Lance Hohaia
4 Simon Mannering
5 Manu Vatuvei
6 Jerome Ropati
7 Grant Rovelli
8 Ruben Wiki (vc)
9 Nathan Fien
10 Steve Price (c)
11 Louis Anderson
12 Logan Swann
13 Micheal Luck

Subs:
14 George Gatis
15 Evarn Tuimavave
16 Sam Rapira
17 Corey Lawrie

Coach: Ivan Cleary

News sent by: www.warriors.co.nz

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