Newcastle Knights' Harold Matthews side has held on for a nail-biting win against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs on Saturday to advance to the Harold Matthews Grand Final.
The minor premiers of the competition returned after a week off to face a Bulldogs side that had several new inclusions since the last time the two teams met in the regular season.
Both teams threw everything at each other in the opening stanza with several big hits and online defence. Five-eighth Nash Birch left the field early with a head knock and played no further part in the match.
Conceding the first try, the Knights responded off a scrum play when centre Heath Gibbs beat his opposing man, dragging three Bulldogs players over the line to score.
With half time looming, the Knights took the lead thanks to a break by Jack Weir, finding Luke Casson on the inside who planted the ball down next to the posts.
Halfback Brendan O'Hagan converted and Newcastle took a well deserved six-point lead into the break.
The Knights kicked off the second half with some strong defence causing a Bulldogs error. They took advantage the next set when halfback Brendan O'Hagan ran it himself on the last tackle, splitting the middle and chipping it to Jack Weir who scored out wide for a fantastic piece of play.
The Bulldogs hit back to narrow the lead to four, and the fans in the stands started to get nervous for what shaped to be a nail biting final ten minutes.
A late penalty goal by Brendan O'Hagan give the Knights a converted try lead with only minutes remaining. That lead proved to be enough as the minor premiers held on for a hard fought 16-10 victory.
The Knights Under 16s now take on Penrith next Saturday at Leichardt Oval in the Grand Final.
Fox Sports will televise match highlights from this encounter as well as season highlights from both the Harold Matthews and SG Ball on Thursday at 4pm.
Harold Matts Summary
Knights 16 (T: Gibbs, Casson, Weir, G: O'Hagan 2/4)
Bulldogs 10
