The NYC Newcastle Knights were defeated 50-12 by the Parramatta Eels at ANZ Stadium on Friday afternoon.
The home side kicked into gear at the back end of the first half to lead the Knights by eight points before the break and stepped it up another notch in the second stanza as the Eels piled on another 28 points to blow out the score line.
In the 6th minute, Parramatta’s John Fonua made his way to the line for the first try of the match. Dylan Brown missed the conversion as the Eels led 4-0.
After a number of repeat sets, Brodie Jones found a gap to stride over for the Knights. Kurtis Dark nailed the conversion in front to take the lead, 6-4.
In the 28th minute, Knights halfback Hayden Loughrey dummied before a few steps to the left to cross over. The Knights lead 12-4.
Injury struck for the Knights soon after, with Sam McIntyre, Dark and Loughrey all forced from the field, with Dark the only one able to return in the second after.
It all started to unravel, with Eels centre Noel Aukafolau scoring in the 33rd minute before Mitch Butfield found a gap on the right to glide over for the Eels third minutes later to regain the lead, 14-12.
In the last minute before the break, Reed Mahoney caught a difficult pass to leg it to the line. Brown booted the conversion as the Eels led 20-12 at halftime.
In the second half, the Eels’ Tangi Hokai crashed through under the posts 52 minutes in before Haze Dunstar shrugged off several Knights defenders to sprint to the line minutes later. Parramatta stretched their lead to 32-12.
60 minutes in, a precision grubber found Fonua to record the double before forward Sean Keppie added to their tally. The Eels lead 44-12.
With five minutes before the final siren, Dunstar dived over on the right edge for another Eels double to extend Parramatta’s lead before a penalty goal from Brown in the final minute saw the home side with a dominant 50-12 win.
Summary
Newcastle Knights 12 (T: Jones, Loughrey, G: Dark 1/1, Cooper 1/1)
Parramatta Eels 50 (T: Fonua 2, Aukafolau, Butfield, Mahoney, Hokai, Dunstar 2, Keppie, G: Brown 6/9, PG: Brown)
Knights
1. Matt Cooper, 2. Mitch Andrews, 3. Cory Denniss, 4. Heath Gibbs, 5. Ofa Manuofetoa, 22. Kurtis Dark, 7. Hayden Loughrey, 8. Cameron King, 9. Nash Birch, 10. Viko Puliuvea, 11. Brodie Jones, 12. Sam McIntyre, 13. Zac Hosking. Interchange: 14. Luke Huth, 15. Henry Penn, 16. Eddy Tuilotolava, 17. Matt Croker.
Eels
1.Anthony Layoun, 21. Sione Fonua, 3. Emosi Alamoti, 4. Noel Aukafolau, 5. Haze Dunstar, 6. Dean Matterson, 7. Dylan Brown, 8. Sean Keppie, 9. Denzal Tonise, 10. Oregon Kaufusi, 11. Dylan Clifford, 12. Salesi Faingaa, 13. Mitch Butfield. Interchange. 14. Reed Mahoney, 15. Tangi Hokai, 16. Frank Salu, 17. Nick Okladnikov.
