Recovering from what Kalyn Ponga described as their worst half of the season, then resisting a late Raiders rally, Newcastle out-lasted Canberra 30-28 in an epic extra-time elimination final at a manic McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.
Ponga’s penalty goal with 90 seconds left in the second half of extra time broke the 28-28 deadlock, sent the parochial pro-Knights crowd into raptures, and punched Newcastle’s ticket for another sudden-death showdown with the Warriors in Auckland next Saturday.
Extending their winning streak to 10, the Knights registered their first finals win under coach Adam O’Brien, first in the post-season since 2013, and first on home soil since their 25-18 triumph over Manly in 2006.
“It had bits of everything in it but I’m really happy with the fight that we showed,” O’Brien said.
“We certainly weren’t at our best tonight, in terms of being clinical, but our effort was as good as I’ve seen … so our DNA and character’s in check, but it certainly wasn’t the greatest night for our footy.
“I don’t want to get bogged down. There’s no point in me standing in there, roasting individuals about completions and all that. That isn't going to help us next week.
“We’ll dump parts of it, but we’ll hang on to the character and the effort that we showed.”
Knights: Finals Week 1
After Jackson Hastings was ruled out in the final minutes of half-time, having aggravated his ankle injury a minute before the break, Ponga and pivot Tyson Gamble engineered a four-try blitz in 15 minutes as the Knights converted a 16-6 half-time deficit into a 28-12 lead.
The Raiders responded with two late converted tries, including one by Tom Starling with less than three minutes remaining to force extra time.
Scoring chances during extended play were few and far between but Ponga’s penalty goal with 90 seconds on the clock proved the difference.
Ponga was returning from a shoulder injury suffered in Newcastle’s 32-6 victory over the Sharks a fortnight earlier, which kept him out of their 32-12 last-round win against the Dragons.
Newcastle’s second-half scoring spree was preceded by Gamble’s biting allegation against Canberra centre Jack Wighton, and though Wighton was not penalised, sin-binned or sent off, the incident infuriated the blue-and-red faithful and the Knights fed off their energy.
“I think the crowd got behind us after that, definitely,” Ponga said.
“The crowd got us home, not that incident. I definitely know that we didn’t start the way we wanted to.
“I would say it was our worst half of footy all year, and we were only down by 10, so I was more than confident that if we got ourselves back in the game through our forwards, that we’ll create those opportunities and we just stuck to the process. It wasn’t pretty but we got it done.”
Wighton on report after biting allegation
O’Brien said the Knights, like some other teams he watched over the weekend, suffered a little finals stage-fright.
He explained that an overwhelming home-crowd advantage did not guarantee a win, and that the Warriors could experience the same the burden of expectation next Saturday.
“I think we made 15 errors or something like that, and we had to do a ton of work on our try-line, and it has been a long time since we’ve done that to ourselves,” O’Brien said.
“And it was against a team that’s pretty experienced in handling finals. I thought that showed a little bit from them – they’re quite good at handling it – and obviously it was a big week for us.
The Knights win a penalty in front
“We understand the importance and how much it meant to those people. There’s probably still 30,000 standing there now. They were unbelievable, so loud, and I guess the enormity of that weighs on the team at times.
“But we wouldn’t have it any other way. And I guess the opposition, they’ll feel the weight of a nation on their shoulders. They’ll know what it feels like next week.
“With that comes a bit of pressure, and we know what that feels like, so it will be interesting to see how they handle that.
“It’s a good story, for what they did for our game, and they were out here away from their fans.
“I’m sure they’re really excited to pack their stadium, but that’s for them to handle this week. We’ll just bunker down and go about our business.”
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