Newcastle Knights made it six wins in row beating the joint leaders of the NRL, South Sydney Rabbitohs 20-12.
Hymel Hunt opened the scoring early for the Knights but the Rabbitohs replied when James Roberts beat Edrick Lee to Adam Doueihi’s kick on his second debut for the Rabbitohs.
But after Mason Lino’s penalty, the Knights moved further ahead when Mitchell Barnett strolled through a yawning gap.
Dane Gagai then brought the Rabbitohs back within six after four players were sin binned for their part in a scrap.
After the break, Newcastle moved 14 points in front, with both sides down to eleven men, when Connor Watson snuck over from dummy half.
Sam Burgess made up for his sin binning with a try with five minutes to go but by then, it was too late.
Rabbitohs: Allan, Hiroti, Roberts, Gagai, Graham, Tracey, Doueihi, G Burgess, Cook, T Burgess, Sutton, S Burgess, Murray; Interchanges: Tatola, Lowe, Knight, Brittain
Tries: Roberts, S Burgess; Goals: Gagai 2
Sin bin: T Burgess (40) – fighting, S Burgess (40) – fighting
On report: T Burgess (78) – trip
Knights: Mann, Lee, Hunt, Ramien, Kenny-Dowall, Lino, Pearce, Saifiti, Watson, Gavet, Fitzgibbon, Barnett, Glasby; Interchanges: Buhrer, Ese’ese, Mata’utia, Saulo
Tries: Hunt, Barnett, Watson Goals: Lino 4
Sin bin: Saifiti (40) – fighting, Fitzgibbon (40) – fighting
Full match reports of all this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express.
