Ponga keeps Newcastle afloat for now in the race for eighth

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South Sydney Rabbitohs v Newcastle Knights

A starring role from Kalyn Ponga has been the catalyst for the Newcastle Knights' slim finals chances staying alive courtesy of a 36-16 win over South Sydney Rabbitohs at Accor Stadium.

Newcastle looked the better of the two sides in attacking field position through the opening exchanges, that saw the visitors cross for the first try. An offload from Daniel Saifiti put Jayden Brailey within metres of the line. From the ensuing set, Kalyn Ponga and Dane Gagai combined to send Fletcher Sharpe away down the right sideline to touch down for the visitors' opening try. Ponga was able to bend the sideline conversion like a certain David Beckham and the Knights led 6-0.

Souths hit back almost immediately after Newcastle conceded a cheap yardage penalty. Jye Gray was able to get Taane Milne on the outside of Dane Gagai who Milne trucked along with Sharpe to get to the line. Fletcher Myers added the extras to put the game back at level terms. Moments later, Jack Wighton was able to charge across some would-be middle Newcastle defence to put the Rabbitohs in the lead. Myers converted and it was a converted try lead.

That would be the last time Souths scored in the first 40. The rest of the first half left a lot to be desired as both sides traded errors in good attacking chances. Ponga lacked the ball in this period, when he got it, he had a half break and put the Knights on the front foot. On the ensuing play, Dylan Lucas got some early ball, beat some poor first contact and scored for the Knights.

Souths continued their comedy horror show of errors as Myers found the sideline off the kickoff on two consecutive occasions which led to points on both occasions. Dane Gagai stepped his way past the defenders and the Knights regained the lead. Off the second occasion, Cam Murray was sent to the bin for shoulder contact to the head of Tyson Frizell which saw Frizell fail to return. Ponga added a penalty goal which made it 20-12 at the change of ends.

Despite managing the sin-bin period efficiently and keeping the Knights to a penalty goal, South Sydney eventually cracked after half-time. Ponga split them after Murray returned to give the Knights quality field position. On the ensuing plays, Ponga again got his hands on the football and went straight through, he found Jack Cogger in support and the Knights cross for the first of the second half. Cogger crossed for a second just shy of the hour mark after fooling the Souths defence with a show and go to score an individual try and the game was soon out of Souths' grasp.

Souths ended with a consolation try with a brilliant grubber kick from Wighton. The ball sat up perfectly for Tallis Duncan and the young back-rower dived on the ball to get the gap back to 16. The Bunker found a high shot from Seb Su'A on debut as the 18th man and he was dispatched to the sin-bin in the aftermath of the Duncan try. Cogger put the icing on the Newcastle cake with a brilliant short ball to Gagai who found his second try of the night to keep the Knights' finals chances alive.