Warriors down Knights in scrappy affair

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Newcastle Knights v Warriors

Controversy has surrounded the Warriors again as they took a 24-20 victory over the Newcastle Knights at McDonald Jones Stadium in front of nearly 13,000 fans.

Wet conditions played their part in the opening 40 minutes with neither side able to take control of the half and despite an early dominance of field position, the Warriors headed into the break trailing 12-2. The Knights opened the scoring after just six minutes when Mason Lino added a close-range penalty goal to take a 2-0 lead. The Warriors levelled the scores 10 minutes later when Issac Luke added a penalty goal of his own.

The Knights opened the tryscoring after some controversy when the referees ruled six again for Newcastle and the Knights spread the ball wide with a good ball from Lachlan Fitzgibbon spreading the ball wide to Sione Mata'utia who came back inside and scored. The Knights added a second first half try in unusual circumstances when David Fusitua failed to clean up a Knights kick and Fitzgibbon claimed the try and have a forensic review by the bunker, the try was awarded.

The second half was a totally different ball game with excitement and controversy going right through the 40 minutes. The Warriors went bang bang after a number of penalties, the first try went the way of Peta Hiku who scored when Blake Green and Adam Blair changed the angle of the play and Hiku ran inside and scored a try. The Warriors second effort came again through some good work from Green and Hiku who threw two excellent passes and Ken Maumalo scored the first of his double and the scores were locked at 12-12.

The Knights then regained their lead with a penalty goal but it was the Warriors who continued the try-scoring when Maumalo got the ball out on the wing and crossed for a flying second try. He then looked to have a third try when he flew into the corner and looked to have grounded the ball however, Steve Clark in the bunker ruled that the Warriors' winger had lost the ball despite slow-mo replays showing that he had grounded the ball. The Knights then bounced back and retook the lead when play wasn't stopped when Hiku was left concussed and Mata'utia scored through the middle.

The final points of the night came when Green kicked through the line and Connor Watson tried to trap the ball with his feet but it went too far off his feet and Sam Lisone got himself over the line to score a try. The Knights had a late chance and the 80th minute sin-bin for Agnatius Paasi gave the Knights a chance but ultimately they couldn't get over the line and get the victory.

Next weekend, the Knights are back at home with a Friday night clash against the Bulldogs whilst the Warriors are in Brisbane with a Saturday afternoon clash up against the Broncos.