Round 12: Sharks v Knights preview
Knights Look to Climb into Top 8 Against Sharks Side Thirsty for Blood
Aside from a shock blowout loss against the Dolphins a couple of weeks ago, the Sharks have been one of the most in-form teams in the competition in recent weeks, while the Knights snapped a 3-game losing streak with an emphatic victory against a hot Titans team.
Playing in a hostile environment against Manly last week, the Sharks were a few tiers above their opposition, streaking out to an 18-point lead with over half an hour left in the match. Looking at the final scoreline of 20-14, one could easily assume Cronulla suffered a mini 2nd half collapse, but in reality, their showing late in the match showed a tremendous step forward defensively.
In that second half, Manly enjoyed a 61% share of possession which brought with it 34 tackles in the opposition 20 compared to just 5 for the Sharks. To hold on to win the match with those lopsided stats is the kind of effort the Sharks will need every week if they are to be considered a genuine threat; they are averaging 29.75 points conceded in games they've lost.
The Knights attack in their win against the Titans was the best it's been since their Round 6 steamrolling of the Warriors, with Kalyn Ponga's return to form unsurprisingly a huge catalyst.
Newcastle have shown this year that on their day their attack is up there with the best in the competition, but what would've pleased Adam O'Brien was the way they piled on the points after going down early in the second half. After the Titans scored a long range try in the 44th minute, Newcastle scored four unanswered tries of their own, effectively ending the game with 10 minutes to go.
With both sides possessing a dynamic attack that can score points from anywhere on the paddock, this game could end up being one of the more entertaining ones of the round. If it does become a shootout, both sides will be well prepared; between the two of them there has been 7 games where 55 or more points were scored.
In team news, Oregon Kaufusi is back for Cronulla and will start in the front row replacing Cam McInnes, who is out with a thumb injury. The Knights are unchanged from the 17 that beat the Gold Coast last week.
Last meeting: Round 25 2022 - Knights 16 Sharks 38
Who to watch: A huge reason for the Sharks dynamic attack this season has been the step forward taken by edge forward Briton Nikora. Through 11 rounds of footy, Nikora leads all back-rowers In total line breaks and line breaks per game with 9 and 0.9 respectively. His threat in attack has also helped open up the field for Nicho Hynes when attacking on the edges, often able to utilise his cut-out passing game to put his outside backs in open space due to the defensive attention drawn by Nikora. Last week, he produced another standout performance, finishing with a line break, try assist, 3 tackle breaks, an offload as well as 40 tackles with only 2 misses. His try assist involved burning Tom Trbojevic, which is admittedly not the claim it would've been two seasons ago but was still no mean feat.
For the Knights, all eyes will rightfully be on Kalyn Ponga. The polarising five-eighth put in a performance last week that went a long way to silencing the doubters who don't think he should be picked in Queensland's state of origin 17 (despite being their best player in the historic game 3 victory less than 12 months ago), finishing with the outstanding stats of 15 runs for 188 metres, a line break, two line break assist, 3 try assists, two tackle breaks and two offloads. With the game in the balance about 5 minutes into the second half, Ponga took the game by the scruff of the neck in a reminder of what he's capable of in attack when he's in the right condition both physically and mentally. Despite all this, it was not the perfect game by any means. Ponga finished with 8 tackles made to go with 6 misses, a number which doesn't indicate improvement from the pathetic showing against Parramatta a few weeks ago. It's an area he simply has to address and address quickly if the Knights are going to upset the Sharks; it's no good scoring 30 points if you're going to concede 40.
Favourite: The Sharks are 9.5-point favourites at the time of writing.
My tip: It'll be a dry track at Pointsbet Stadium for this one. I think the Knights will keep it close for 65 minutes or so before the Sharks snag a couple of late tries to take the win. Sharks by 8.
