Ponga down as Raiders muscle up to escape with victory

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Newcastle Knights v Canberra Raiders

A second half foot injury to Kalyn Ponga has overshadowed a brave Newcastle fightback as they went down by 22-18 to the Canberra Raiders at McDonald Jones Stadium.

It was a tense opening and it was an easy end-to-end struggle until a Simi Sasagi break turned momentum before Matt Timoko busted 50 metres to give Canberra much needed field position. After 16 minutes, an Ethan Strange bomb was well taken by Sasagi to get first points.

Eight minutes later, a Jamal Fogarty 40/20 was rewarded when offloads continued to push the Knights away. A great offload saw Kaeo Weekes crash over next to the posts. The Raiders had nine offloads in the first half and it was another one that put Strange over for a 16-0 lead. Newcastle's first half attacking woes this season continued with the side booed off McDonald Jones Stadium for the second home game in three as they were held to nil for the ninth time this season at half-time.

After sustained possession to start the second half, the Knights had to open the scoring to start the second half. Kalyn Ponga quickly identified an overlap down the short-side and he linked up with James Schiller to score against his old club. As the Knights were building into the contest, a poor error from Jackson Hastings saw Strange play counter-attacking footy as he sprinted up to the 20 metre line. A looping pass found Jed Stuart, who turned Dominic Young inside and out to score a cracking counter-attacking try.

After skipper Kalyn Ponga went down the tunnel with a suspected ankle injury. Newcastle's attacking spark had to come from other options. Their left edge combination of Best and Schiller was their best hope as they went 80 metres on a single play. On ensuing tackles, Jermaine McEwen crashed over from dummy half for his maiden NRL try.

We had a grandstand finish in waiting as another shift to the left edge from Best and Schiller sent the former Raider over for his second and the Knights were coming to get the green machine. But, the Knights continued to show their inconsistency and drove FOX League's Warren Smith crazy when they didn't contest a kick for the umpteenth time this season.