Newcastle Knights were unable to gain their second win of the season today, going down 18-24 at home in a tight contest against South Sydney, who registered their second win of the season.
Souths took the lead in the first half with two early tries from Alex Johnston and John Sutton.
But when George Burgess dropped the ball when he was tackled by Mitch Barnett a minor fracas broke out and Burgess was sinbinned for ten minutes.
Suddenly the momentum of the game changed and the Knights scored two tries through Trent Hodkinson and Pat Mata’utia to level the scores at 10-10 and a late penalty goal by Hodkinson gave the Knights a 12-10 lead at the break.
After a mistake from Brock Lamb, Cody Walker kicked through for Bryson Goodwin to touch down to reclaim the lead and the Knights ruined several chances with handling errors before the Rabbitohs extended their lead as Adam Reynolds fed winger Braidon Burns to make the score 22-12.
Hodkinson foolishly spoke too aggressively to the referee and was sinbinned for the final ten minutes of the game.
A Reynolds penalty goal extended the Rabbitohs’ lead to 12 points but former Hull KR man Ken Sio’s try in the 78th minute was converted from the touchline by Lamb, but by then it was too late for the Knights to get back on terms.
Newcastle: 1. Brendan Elliot, 2. Ken Sio, 3. Dane Gagai, 4. Peter Mata’utia, 5. Nathan Ross, 6. Brock Lamb, 7. Trent Hodkinson, 8. Daniel Saifiti, 9. Danny Levi, 10. Josh Starling, 11. Sione Mata’utia, 12. Jamie Buhrer, 13. Mitch Barnett. Interchange: 14. Luke Yates, 15. Jack Stockwell, 16. Sam Stone, 17. Jacob Saifiti.
South Sydney: 1. Alex Johnston, 2. Braidon Burns, 3. Hymel Hunt, 4. Robert Jennings, 5. Bryson Goodwin, 6. Cody Walker, 7. Adam Reynolds, 17. George Burgess, 9. Robbie Farah, 10. Jason Clark, 11. John Sutton, 12. Kyle Turner, 13. Sam Burgess. Interchange: 14. Damien Cook, 15. Angus Crichton, 16. Robbie Rochow, 8. Zane Musgrove.
Full coverage of the weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s edition of League Express.