Round 10
Sydney Roosters 6 l. Newcastle Knights 38

2009 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

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

Knights back to entertaining best
Sun May 17, 2009
Source: www.newcastleknights.com.au

Back in the inaugural jersey of 1988, Newcastle wound back the clock in more ways than once last night with one of the most entertaining wins in recent memory.

The 38-6 victory saw Kurt Gidley in career best form, Origin hopeful James McManus increase his chances of a Blues debut and prop Danny Wicks score his annual runaway try against the Roosters for Newcastle's most comprehensive victory in recent memory.

"It was probably our best performance of the year," said Coach, Brian Smith.

"Particularly the first half. It was a comprehensive performance. A few little moments in the second half we lost our way and had a few guys just off the boil for a little while but in the big wash up we scored 38 points."

Although disallowed the opening try after four minutes, the Knights appeared to have control from the start. Two tries to Zeb Taia in almost as many minutes were complimented by Kurt Gidley's boot for an early 12 point lead.

With that grew confidence as McManus set about placing Blues selectors on notice with a 40 metre solo burst and coming up with a handy penalty and 14 ? 0 buffer.

One of the most entertaining tries of 2009 was delivered minutes out from half time when Gidley caught the Roosters defence off guard, running 30 metres and finding Ben Rogers with a flick pass. Rogers combined with Jarrod Mullen to send Newcastle on the way to a 22-0 half time lead.

The Roosters emerged from the sheds with determination but needed a lucky bounce for their only try of the night. It wasn't long before the Knights hit back when Mullen backed himself to find the Sydney line.

The Roosters threw everything at Newcastle but were met time after time with a wall of structured defence, holding ground and building enough pressure to send Cooper Vuna flying through for his first try of the year in his first game back from injury.

If that didn't hurt enough, the killer blow came when Richard Fa'aoso displayed his attacking skills to send Danny Wicks into the clear for his annual runaway try against the Roosters, sprinting 40 metres to leave Braith Anasta in his wake and score a definite start in the presentation night highlights video.

"He can run that boy, he sure can run.

"There's a lot of confidence in our place at the moment," Steve Simpson said.

"Everyone's believing in the bloke next to them which is great so as long as we can keep that going and work on the little things we won't get too far ahead of ourselves, but there's some good footy to be played yet."

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