Kalyn Ponga has led the Newcastle Knights to a courageous 28-18 victory over the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL 2026 season opener in Allegiant Stadium. The victory has kickstarted the Justin Holbrook era in style although there's some concerns over a knee injury to gun half Fletcher Sharpe.
It was the 'home side' that kick-started their season with a terrific try. Kalyn Ponga put up an almighty bomb, which saw Sharpe outleap Scott Drinkwater to score the first try of the 2026 NRL season after six minutes.
North Queensland were struggling early in the contest and they were punished for a second poor kick defusal. A Brown crossfield kick was batted back brilliantly by Sharpe before quick hands saw the ball float out to Greg Marzhew. With a lot of work to do, the huge winger crashed over in the corner to lead 12-0 after 14 minutes.
Midway through the half, the Cowboys capitalised significantly on their limited possession when Tom Dearden exposed an injured Sharpe in the defensive line with a delightful short pass to Heilum Luki to charge across.
The visitors continued their change in momentum when they caused carnage off a broken defensive line. A good kick return by Jaxon Purdue gave the Cowboys the switch they needed with the ball. When the ball went down the short side, it was a terrific offload from Sam McIntyre to send Murray Taulagi over in the corner to level the scores at the break.
Newcastle opened the scoring in the second half with new half Sandon Smith providing a lovely inside pass back to Ponga who busted them open before linking up with Bradman Best to score for the home side. Minutes later, Jake Clifford booted the kickoff out on the full. It took a simple movement to the right edge that saw Ponga and Brown combine to get a terrific tap on from Dane Gagai to find Dom Young to touch down in the right corner.
Off the back of a Knights error and some poor discipline, Clifford continued to have the game on a string with a clever grubber kick in behind the rushing defence and Murray Taulagi goes over for his second try of the contest.
It was a nervous finish to the game for the Knights who defended brilliantly to overcome the attacking raids by the Cowboys. It was a terrific start to the season for both sides who will walk away with plenty to work on heading into the season upon return to Australia.