Knights attacking woes disappear against poor Souths

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South Sydney Rabbitohs v Newcastle Knights

The Newcastle Knights have for at least this week banished their attacking woes with a big win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

The first attacking set from the Knights looked worrying as they didn't throw much at Souths at all but the red and green were their own worst enemy struggling in defence and with their discipline.

It was all through an eight minute burst that did the damage for the Knights as Fletcher Sharpe chased through a Ponga grubber to score with some good work trying to keep control of the ball to score. The birthday boy then soon added a second try when despite a valiant attempt from Jye Gray in defence to initially get Sharpe back into the field of play but Sharpe had the strength to get the ball down to the satisfaction of referee Liam Kennedy and the bunker.

A third try within fifteen minutes put Souths to the sword when Jack Cogger broke through a poor tackle from Sean Keppie and the Knights 7 had scored. Kalyn Ponga put over his third conversion to give the Knights an 18-0 lead.

The conditions turned beyond poor and neither side could trouble the scorers especially the Rabbitohs who turned the ball over almost at every opportunity they could get in attack as Euan Aitken was denied with a poor effort from dummy half.

The conditions improved in the second half but the Souths defence was worse than what the weather was as the Knights continued to make metres on the outside of the Rabbitohs. The Knights took advantage of this straight off a kick with Kalyn Ponga and Bradman Best combining with the latter scoring a strong try.

Just after the hour mark, the Fletcher Sharpe made his 21^st birthday a truly magical one as he went over for his third try. The conversion from Kalyn Ponga went out to a 30-0 lead.

The Rabbitohs picked up a consolation try just under 15 minutes from full time when Campbell Graham contested a kick knocking it backwards before it ended up with Isaiah Tass who scored in the corner. The conversion was very wide and the score remained at 30-4.

As the rain came down, both sides couldn't test the scorers again.

Next week, the Rabbitohs play host to the Broncos back at Accor Stadium next week whilst the Knights will be boosted in confidence as they take on the hot-and-cold Gold Coast Titans at home in Newcastle.