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Canberra’s Hudson Young ends the Raiders’ 28-12 win over the Knights with a try, but he will nervously await the NRL’s charges after a shot on Kalyn Ponga.
Coach Ricky Stuart will be happy with the fight shown by his side in front of 22,378 at Hunter Stadium, but may have to have a word to Young, who was put on report for an late and high hit on Ponga after the Newcastle superstar broke through the Canberra defence.
Referee Todd Smith said it was a “totally unnecessary” effort from Young as he sent him to the bin in the 25th minute and Fox League commentator Greg Alexander labelled it “a moment of madness”.
“It was careless,” Jillaroo Tiana Penitani told Fox.
“He had enough time to make a decision to not throw his shoulder into Kalyn Ponga’s head. Plenty of time to make that decision.”
Prop Emre Guler was also put on report for a hip-drop tackle, and both will nervously await the outcome of the match review committee on Friday.
Ponga’s break, which ultimately ended in a penalty for the Raiders due to an obstruction just before Young’s effort, was a rare moment of attacking brilliance from a Knights side that looked disjointed for most of the night.
They kicked the ball out on the full on three occasions — once in play and twice from kick-offs — and completed just 70 per cent of their sets thanks to 12 errors.
ABC Sport will be live blogging every round of the AFL and NRL seasons in 2024.
Look back at how the match unfolded in out live blog below and check out all the stats in our ScoreCentre.
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Congratulations to the Raiders on their win tonight, but the Knights will be gutted with their performance.
They don’t want to have to go on another 10-game winning streak at the end of the season to make the finals, so they need to sort their issues ASAP.
But we’ll leave that all to the future and leave you with a reminder that we’ll be blogging every round of the NRL (and AFL) this year, so we’ll be back tomorrow night for Warriors-Sharks and Storm-Panthers.
See you then!
Not So Big Papi
Josh Papali’i has slimmed down in the off-season.
He played 43 minutes tonight and had three tackle breaks from 10 hit-ups. Of his 105 metres, 41 came after contact.
‘Extremely disappointing’: Hastings
FULL-TIME: Canberra Raiders 28-12 Newcastle Knights
That was an impressive and typical Canberra Raiders win tonight. Just holding on and taking advantage when they got their chances.
Ricky Stuart will be thrilled with that performance, bearing in mind they still have Elliott Whitehead, Corey Horsburgh and Sebastian Kris to come back into the side.
The Knights looked really ordinary tonight in attack and the defence crumbled late in the piece once a bit of fatigue set in.
Hudson Young ends his night with a try
He had the worst play of the night, but he ends it with a try on the end of an improvised move with six passes, two offloads and a tackle bust from Emre Guler to crash over.
Both sides look gassed, but the Raiders’ big men find the energy to put a move on and send Young over.
The Knights finally get back on the scoreboard
Halfback Jackson Hastings just strolls between some tired Canberra defenders and jogs it in under the posts.
Ponga converts for a 22-12 deficit, but it would take a miracle.
75′ Tyson Gamble lives up to his name
The Knights five-eighth tries a chip and chase from his own half and earns his team a penalty as he gets taken out by Joe Tapine after the kick.
Tapine challenges, but the bunker says he intentionally backed into Gamble.
Jordan Rapana seals the win for Canberra
On the back of a good run from Tom Starling, they spin it wide to Ethan Strange, who skips across the defence and fires a ball out to Albert Hopoate. He spins and passes out to Rapana to score right where Savage touched down a couple of minutes ago.
Not sure why Rapana’s on the wing, but it’s earned him some points there.
Fogarty hooks the sideline conversion. He’s kicked well in play, but the tee kicking hasn’t been great.
66′ Knights running a MASH unit
Winger Enari Tuala is off with a quad injury…
… and Dylan Lucas was filling in out in the centres, but now he’s off after hurting himself trying to stop Savage. So I have no clue what the outside backs for Newcastle looks like now.
I think Tyson Frizell is playing right centre with Dane Gagai on the wing.
X marks the spot for Canberra!
Another Jamal Fogarty kick leads to points for the Raiders.
Albert Hopoate climbs above a grounded Dane Gagai to rein in a high ball, popping a pass out the back to Hudson Young, who recycles in a flash out to Xavier Savage, charging to the line and stepping inside Kalyn Ponga and Dylan Lucas to dot down out wide.
61′ What a hit by Tom Starling and Josh Papali’i!
Jamal Fogarty’s mis-hit bomb is allowed to bounce a couple of times, and Greg Marzhew picks it up deep in his in-goal with the Raiders swarming. Substitute hooker Tom Starling gets under his ribs and big Big Papi finishes him off up top to force the dropout.
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56′ Woeful last tackle by Newcastle
The Knights go close but get held up on the fifth, then, after a bunker review that give Canberra time to reset its defence, the Knights just slowly spin the ball the width of the field. The Raiders simply number up in defence and force the handover on their own 20m line.
54′ Hudson Young gets away with one, but the Raiders eventually get punished
Hudson Young was carrying on like a pork chop on the ground after tackling Kalyn Ponga, driving his head into his chest for a couple of seconds. He doesn’t get penalised, but the penalty on Jamal Fogarty on the following tackle feels like a real make-up call.
Knights on the attack deep in Canberra’s territory.
And a repeat set as Jack Cogger’s grubber is played at.
52′ Great grab by Ponga
Jamal Fogarty launches a spiralling bomb, but it doesn’t tip at the top of its flight the way a Cleary bomb might, meaning it falls relatively straight and Ponga makes a clean take, firing himself back into the defensive line.
Danny Levi goes over oh, so easily
The Knights conceded a penalty on their tryline and about two tackles later, former Knight Pasami Saulo gets a quick play-the-ball and the Knights, even with the markers shamelessly side by side, can’t stop Danny Levie scooting over between Jack Hetherington and Jacob Saifit under the posts.
44′ Knights get a penalty and will go right on the attack
Jamal Fogarty boots a long ball straight to Kalyn Ponga.
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And the Raiders give away a penalty for a strip by Danny Levi.
41′ We’re underway in the second half
Finally a normal kick-off.
‘A moment of madness from Hudson Young’
Hudson Young finished that first half back on the park, but he could have a case to answer at the judiciary for his late, high shot on Kalyn Ponga in the 24th minute.
Ponga had clearly passed and been knocked by Jordan Rapana, and Young came through late.
Granted, his momentum was always going to carry him into Ponga, but Jillaroo Tiana Penitani said it best on Fox…
“He had enough time to make a decision to not throw his shoulder into Kalyn Ponga’s head.”
Pretty much sums it up.
HALF-TIME: Canberra Raiders 8-6 Newcastle Knights
The Knights are looking very sloppy out there, but their defence is holding up pretty well.
If they can cut out some silly mistakes, they look the better of the two sides.
Credit to Canberra though, because they played a quarter of that first 40 minutes down to 12 men and even scored a try in that period.
39′ Welcome to the NRL, Ethan Strange
Dane Gagai jams up and in on the 19-year-old five-eighth and jolts the ball loose.
Strange has been pretty quiet tonight. Jamal Fogarty needs to find a way to bring him into the game.
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