The NRL’s first Super Saturday clash of 2020 was a Newcastle Knights v the New Zealand Warriors showdown.
Our only late team change is King Vuniyayawa taking Karl Lawton’s spot on the bench.
Kalyn Ponga will play his 50th game while Jamayne Taunoa-Brown, Eliesa Katoa and King Vuniyayawa will make their debut!
The Knights opened the scoring after 10 minutes of play.
Only a few metres out, Mitch Pearce dropped it Under to Daniel Saifiti who powered over for the first 4-pointer.
Kalyn Ponga sent the kick over from right in front to make the score 6-0 Knights.
10 minutes later, Newcastle cracked the warriors again.
An attempted grubber ricocheted off the Warriors and they knocked on.
Kurt Mann picked up the ball, drew in the winger and gave it to Edrick Lee to score.
Kalyn Ponga hooked the goal so the score remained 10-0 Knights.
Throughout the whole first quarter, penalties plagued the warriors.
The eighth penalty in the first 20 minutes lead to Chanel Harris-Tavita being sin-binned.
The Warriors successfully defended during this 10 minute period and the score held until half time.
To start off the second half, errors creeped back into the warriors game.
An error followed by a penalty lead to Kalyn Ponga slotting a penalty goal to make the lead 12-0.
Again, with half an hour left, Ponga slotted another goal to make the lead 14-0.
5 minutes later, the Knights continued their dominance of the Warriors with another try.
Kalyn Ponga was the man to crack the defence for the third try of game and he converted his own try to make the lead 20-0.
Warriors just couldn’t get any points on the board as the score remained until full time.
The Knights open their bank for 2020 with their first win of the season as they shut out the warriors in the rain.
Knights will play the Wests Tigers next week and the Warriors will play the Canberra Raiders next week (given nothing occurs with COVID-19).
NRL News Player of the Game
3. Kalyn Ponga
2. David Klemmer
- Connor Watson