Knights down the Dragons in a rainstorm, Bulldogs beat 11-man Roosters

Newcastle could have discovered their halves mixture, after Jackson Hastings and Jack Cogger eased strain on the Knights by inspiring a 30-10 defeat of St George Illawarra.

In torrential rain, the Knights managed the vast majority of Friday night time’s recreation, their assault wanting the most effective it has all season — thanks largely to their third distinctive halves pairing in 5 video games.

Final season’s semi-finalists had been staring down the opportunity of a 1-4 report however confirmed their second win of the yr with a strong defensive show after halftime.

The Dragons’ combined begin to 2024 continued and they’re going to sweat on the supply of Jack Chicken after the centre appeared to injure his left knee.

Early indicators are that Chicken’s harm is just not extreme, however he didn’t return after falling awkwardly in a sort out from Jackson Hastings simply after halftime.

In his first recreation for the reason that Dragons granted his launch request, the unsettled Zac Lomax was one in all few exceptions because the guests struggled to adapt to the slippery situations.

Newcastle poked holes within the Dragons’ goal-line defence for enjoyable within the first half, forcing Shane Flanagan to modify Lomax to fullback and put Tyrell Sloan on the wing for a part of the second half.

The irony wouldn’t have been misplaced on Lomax, whose frustration together with his transfer to the wing had triggered his want to maneuver on.

As soon as in place, the Dragons struggled to execute and went scoreless after the twenty second minute.

When Sloan coughed up the primary of many grubber kicks from Cogger, Hastings pounced on the free ball and opened the scoring on return from his two-week spell in NSW Cup.

Enari Tuala added a second strive earlier than Cogger, taking up the majority of kicking obligations, landed a grubber in a puddle and Daniel Saifiti slid by means of to increase the hosts’ benefit.

An inside ball from Hastings to Dylan Lucas helped stretch the halftime result in 14 factors.

The Dragons seemed most harmful when Lomax and Ben Hunt had been linking up on the suitable edge, as they did for the aspect’s solely two tries of the night time.

Hunt grubbered by means of the road to assist the winger rating Saints’ first, earlier than a freakish no-look flick move from Lomax put the halfback in for his or her second.

However when Ponga fairly actually slid over for the Knights’ fifth strive within the closing 5 minutes, the hosts had been residence.

AAP