Newcastle Knights scored a late try for the second week in a row to defeat Manly Sea Eagles 18-12.
Manly and Newcastle both were denied by the video referee early. Lachlan Croker and Kalyn Ponga dropped the ball over the line with the try line in sight.
It was third time lucky for Connor Watson. He managed to shake off Croker enough to just ground the ball for the Knights.
But the Sea Eagles took a 6-4 lead into half-time. Api Koroisau kicked in behind for Dylan Walker who just beat Jack Cogger to the loose ball.
Just after Daniel Saifiti returned from his stint in the sin-bin, Manly pushed further ahead. Daly Cherry-Evans took the ball to the line and fed Shaun Lane.
But the Knights are a different prospect in 2018, they came back into the game when Slade Griffin stole a try from dummy half.
Newcastle were on a roll and took the lead through a Ken Sio penalty. But Cherry-Evans levelled the scores once again with a penalty of his own with ten minutes to go.
Ponga skipped on the outside of Cherry-Evans to set up Nathan Ross for the winning try with only four minutes left to play.
Sea Eagles: T Trbojevic, Wright, Walker, Kelly, Uate, Croker, Cherry-Evans, Fonua-Blake, Koroisau, Taupau, Thompson, Gosiewski, J Trbojevic; Interchanges: Brown, Lane, Perrett, Paseka
Tries: Walker, Lane; Goals: Cherry-Evans 2
Sin-bin: J Trbojevic (80) – dissent
Knights: Ponga, Sio, Mata’utia, Ross, Kenny-Dowall, Watson, Cogger, Ese’ese, Griffin, D Saifiti, Fitzgibbon, Guerra, Barnett; Interchanges: Buhrer, Heighington, Yates, J Saifiti
Tries: Watson, Griffin, Ross; Goals: Sio 3
Sin-bin: D Saifiti (32) – professional foul
Full match reports of all this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express.