Pearce stars has Newcastle have a Knight out

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Newcastle Knights v Sydney Roosters

The Newcastle Knights have taken their fifth win in a row with a stunning 38-12 performance over the Sydney Roosters in front of just under 26,000 fans in Newcastle.

Prime time Friday Night Rugby League saw the Newcastle faithful head out in droves and what they were given was something that not many expected. The Knights dominated the opening 40 minutes with an early penalty goal giving the home side an early lead and they built on that from then on.

Newcastle's first try came in just the eighth minute when Hymel Hunt took an intercept off a forward pass from Luke Keary, for Hunt to race through untouched. The intercept try was a double blow, with Roosters half Luke Keary suffering a concussion and not returning for the remainder of the match. The Knights extended their lead out to 10-0 when Kalyn Ponga added a second penalty goal to his tally.

The Roosters looked to bring the game back towards even when James Tedesco showed his footballing smarts, taking a quick tap off the back of a penalty with the Knights having their backs turned. 'Teddy' got over the line and the visitors had brought it back to 10-6. That was the closest they could get as the Knights continued to dominate the game and they added back to back tries in the last five minutes of the half.

The Knights second try came through Ponga who spotted a gap in the Roosters defence and the home side's star showed classy footwork to beat the covering defence and scored the try before converting it himself as well. The final try of the half summed up the difference in the two sides, with the Knights showing some big fight in attack and then Mitchell Pearce came charging onto a ball from Connor Watson to score under the posts. The conversion from Ponga added the extra 2 and the Knights took a 22-6 lead into the break.

The second half was again all Newcastle as they dominated from the beginning of the second half with Watson almost replicating the Pearce try when he found space 30 metres out and just flew through a gap and scored to push the Knights out to a 28-6 lead.

The Roosters' ill-discipline continued to cost them as the Newcastle added their third penalty goal of the night to go out to a 30-6 lead. The game then had a break in scoring but the Knights continued to dominate and they finally added another penalty goal with 11 minutes to play. The class of the hosts wasn't done with yet either, Edrick Lee adding their final points after Pearce threw a beautiful long ball out to the former Shark who scored the four-pointer.

There was a consolation try in the dying minutes for the Tricolours when Siosiua Taukeiaho was in the right spot to score a try after Watson couldn't clean up a kick from Brock Lamb, and the Roosters front rower scored.

Both sides have the bye next weekend in an Origin shortened round, before the Knights host Souths and the Roosters travel to Penrith to take on the Panthers in Round 13.