Controversial try helps the Knights to thrilling win

A controversial Sione Mata'utia try has helped the Newcastle Knights to a thrilling 28-22 victory over the New Zealand Warriors at Hunter Stadium in front of 12,000.

The game started off with the Knights in pure control with a string of three penalties in a row helping them to build momentum before Jarrod Mullen saw the Warriors defence press forward so a perfect kick set up Sione Mata'utia for the first of his three tries for the afternoon.

The Knights continued their good attacking form when another left hand raid was successful when Joseph Leilua got through a gap to extend the lead for the Knights.

The biggest talking point of the game came soon after when the Sione Mata'utia streaked down the sideline off a blind slide raid from a scrum on their on 10m line, the controversy was the fact that as the ball came out of the scrum a covering Shaun Johnson had run into referee Gavin Morris which meant he had no chance of covering the play, despite the incident the referees awarded the try and the Warriors were left fuming.

This spurred the Warriors into action with a David Fusitua scoring a miracle try in the corner opening their scoring before Manu Vatuvei got his first of the afternoon to take the score back to 14-10 at halftime.

The second half started well for the Warriors when Nathan Friend took advantage of a super soft Knights defensive line to bring the scores back to 14-14.

From there the Knights hit back through the Mata'utia brothers with Sione getting his third and Chanel getting his try of the afternoon, which was split between a Kurt Gidley penalty goal.

David Fusitua got the Warriors back into the game with another special try, this was counteracted though when Chad Townsend missed yet another goal attempt which was then punished when Kurt Gidley put over another penalty goal.

Manu Vatuvei got the final try of the game when he himself used his skill to keep himself in the field of play after the Knights didn't make a play at the last tackle kick.

The Warriors had two chances to score though an intercepted pass then a knock on both of which were from Sam Tomkins closed the door on the Warriors winning chances.

The Knights will look to get three wins in a row next weekend when they travel to Brisbane to take on the Broncos next Saturday, meanwhile the Warriors go back home when they take on the Sydney Roosters at Mt Smart Stadium next Sunday afternoon.

NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS (28)
Tries: Sione Mata'utia (3), Joseph Leilua, Chanel Mata'utia
Conversions: Kurt Gidley (2/5)
Penalty Goals: Kurt Gidley (2/2)

NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS (22)
Tries: David Fusitua (2), Manu Vatuvei (2), Nathan Friend
Conversions: Chad Townsend (1/5)

TEAM NEWS | Knights lose Willie Mason and Akuila Uate - this sees Sione Mata'utia (#20, wing) and David Fa'alogo (#18, prop) starting. Chris Houston fills the remaining bench spot. Positionally, Travis Waddell will start in jersey #14 at hooker while #9 Adam Clydsdale will drop to the bench. The Warriors are 1-17.

Here come the NZ Warriors out onto the field at Hunter Stadium, in the white away jerseys today

Here come the Knights onto Hunter Stadium and they are wearing the close the gap, aboriginal design jersey

1: UNFORCED ERROR NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
David Fa'alogo makes an unforced error.
Poor first set from the Knights, Jeremy Smith gets a good offload to David Fa'alogo who wasn't ready for it and he drops it

2: PENALTY WARRIORS: Knights penalised by Gavin Reynolds for a second effort in the tackle, Warriors go the tap

4: UNFORCED ERROR NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Ben Henry makes an unforced error.
Warriors look sharp in attack but the last pass from Sam Tomkins isn't a good one and Ben Henry can't handle it

5: PENALTY KNIGHTS: Warriors captain Simon Mannering is on report for a high tackle on Dane Gagai

5: PENALTY KNIGHTS: Warriors hold too long in the tackle and Travis Waddell takes the quick tap

6: UNFORCED ERROR NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Shaun Johnson makes an unforced error.
Shaun Johnson can't catch an average kick from Jarrod Mullen and the Knights have the 10m scrum

8: Poor last tackle option for the Knights and Tyrone Roberts is tackled on the last about 5m out from the Warriors line

9: PENALTY KNIGHTS: Gavin Morris penalises the Warriors for being inside the 10m which gives the Knights a piggyback out of their own 20m

11: TRY NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Scored by Sione Mata'utia. Kick to come.
Jarrod Mullen catches the aggressive Warriors defence napping and Sione Mata'utia gets the opening 4 pointer

12: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Conversion attempt by Kurt Gidley unsuccessful.
Kurt Gidley starts the kick too much to the left and the touchies wave it away

13: The Knights trying an expansive game although the last tackle option catches them out and the kick goes dead

14: PENALTY WARRIORS: Knights ruled to have gone too early in defence according to Gavin Morris

15: The Warriors will get another set of six after Gavin Morris rules the Warriors kick was played at before going into touch

16: UNFORCED ERROR NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Sam Tomkins makes an unforced error.
Sam Tomkins has to reach back to catch a terrible pass from Shaun Johnson but he can't take it and pressure is off the Knights

19: Feleti Mateo gets collected high but enough for the VR to put it on report

19: PENALTY KNIGHTS: Another offside penalty against the Warriors blown by Gavin Morris, Knights on the attack again

20: TRY NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Scored by Joseph Leilua. Kick to come.
The Knights go left, Joseph Leilua finds a gap and has too much speed for Ben Henry to stop him and Leilua scores

22: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Conversion attempt by Kurt Gidley unsuccessful.
Kurt Gidley from the sideline can't convert the try

23: PENALTY KNIGHTS: Warriors penalised for a high tackle there, didn't seem to be much in it, Simon Mannering argues the case and Gavin Morris
"Takes his point"

24: Poor kick on the last gives Sam Tomkins a free run to the 20m and beyond

26: TRY NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Scored by Sione Mata'utia. Kick to come.
Sione Mata'utia gets a double after streaking down the sideline after Shaun Johnson can't get to the tackle through contact with Gavin Morris

28: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Conversion attempt by Kurt Gidley successful.
Kurt Gidley puts the ball through the posts and extends the Knights lead

32: The Warriors throw the ball around on the last with very little gain with the Knights defence a class above

33: PENALTY WARRIORS: The ball rolls free from the Warriors but Gavin Reynolds finds a strip and penalises the Knights for it

34: VIDEO REFEREE: David Fusitua could have a miracle try, Gavin Morris says NO TRY however, checking touchline and grounding

35: TRY NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Scored by David Fusitua. Kick to come.
David Fusitua pulls off an absolute MIRACLE try, throws himself in the air and gets the ball down just inside the sideline

35: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Conversion attempt by Chad Townsend unsuccessful.
Chad Townsend pushes the conversion across the face of the goals, for no change to the score

38: Kurt Gidley takes an absolute screamer at the back with the high bomb from Shaun Johnson though does get trapped ingoal

38: VIDEO REFEREE: Checking a possible Manu Vatuvei try, Gavin Morris says TRY, checking a possible knock on in the lead up

38: TRY NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Scored by Manu Vatuvei. Kick to come.
Manu Vatuvei strolls over for his first of the afternoon, after the Video Refs can't find conclusive evidence to overturn the onfield decision of TRY

40: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Conversion attempt by Chad Townsend successful.
An absolute perfect kick from Chad Townsend sees the kick go through the middle of the uprights to close the gap to 4

40: That's Half Time at Hunter Stadium - the Newcastle Knights take a 14-10 lead over the NZ Warriors in an entertaining half of footy

40: Both sides are back on the field at Hunter Stadium for the second 40 minutes

41: PENALTY WARRIORS: Opening penalty of the second half goes to the Warriors and they go down field

41: TRY NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Scored by Nathan Friend. Kick to come.
Nathan Friend goes from dummy half and has no Knights defenders in front of him so he takes full advantage of the gap and a soft try

43: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Conversion attempt by Chad Townsend unsuccessful.
Chad Townsend puts a shocker in and the ball goes to the left of the uprights

46: PENALTY WARRIORS: Jarrod Mullen penalised for a strip on Manu Vatuvei after the Beast was slammed on his back in a good tackle

47: Edge to edge attack for the Warriors but they don't get points but do get the repeat set

48: Shaun Johnson goes sideways then throws a long ball that ends up with the touch judge

50: PENALTY KNIGHTS: The Warriors try a bit too much in the tackle and are penalised - Count now 6-5 in favour of the Knights

51: VIDEO REFEREE: Sione Mata'utia could have a hattrick, checking touch line and touch ingoal and grounding, Gavin Reynolds has a TRY

53: TRY NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Scored by Sione Mata'utia. Kick to come.
Sione Mata'utia gets his third with another example of spectacular skill from the winger

53: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Conversion attempt by Kurt Gidley successful.
Kurt Gidley nails the conversion from the sideline

54: Knights go close again but Sam Tomkins dives desperately over the ball and stops another Knights try

58: Plenty of excitement and passing on the last tackle play before an average Leilua kick goes straight to the Warriors defence

61: UNFORCED ERROR NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Manu Vatuvei makes an unforced error.
The Knights run it on the last before a Tyrone Roberts kick can't be taken by Manu Vatuvei

62: PENALTY KNIGHTS: Warriors hang around too long in tackle on their own 10m and they are penalised

64: SUCCESSFUL PENALTY GOAL NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Penalty goal attempt by Kurt Gidley successful.
From right in front Kurt Gidley kicks the penalty goal to extend the margin

65: TRY NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Scored by Chanel Mata'utia. Kick to come.
Chanel Mata'utia gets his first of the night after the Knights again play a free-flowing set and extends the lead out again

67: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Conversion attempt by Kurt Gidley unsuccessful.
Kurt Gidley misses the conversion by a country mile

67: Warriors on the attack after successfully using the short kickoff

69: TRY NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Scored by David Fusitua. Kick to come.
David Fusitua is on the receiving end of some beautiful lead up work from the Warriors and he scores in the corner

70: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Conversion attempt by Chad Townsend unsuccessful.
Chad Townsend doesn't get enough fade on the kick and misses it

72: UNFORCED ERROR NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Chad Townsend makes an unforced error.
Shaun Johnson forces an offload but Chad Townsend can't catch the ball, Knights have the scrum 40m out from their own line

73: PENALTY KNIGHTS: Feleti Mateo is penalised for a late hit on Tyrone Roberts

74: SUCCESSFUL PENALTY GOAL NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Penalty goal attempt by Kurt Gidley successful.
Kurt Gidley uses the clock and adds another 2 points

74: Another successful short kick off for the Warriors after the Knights tap it back and Sam Lousi is first to the ball

75: TRY NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Scored by Manu Vatuvei. Kick to come.
Manu Vatuvei gets the green lights from the Video Refs and closes the gap

76: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Conversion attempt by Chad Townsend unsuccessful.
Chad Townsend misses yet another kick this afternoon and gap is 6

78: UNFORCED ERROR NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Sam Tomkins makes an unforced error.
Sam Tomkins can't catch the ball and is that the end of the Warriors chance to win