After last week’s 42-point loss, a dominant win against the Gold Coast Titans brought back a smile to the face of NYC Newcastle Knights coach Todd Lowrie.
Lowrie admits the 50-22 drubbing on the weekend was a better result than they could have hoped for leading into the bye.
“Although we got beat pretty heavily last week, we were pretty confident in the game plan that we brought up,” said the NYC coach.
“To the boys’ credit they did exactly what they trained to do and they got the result.
“Especially leading into the bye, this week we can go in and have the week off where they are feeling good about themselves.”
On either side of the halftime break, the Knights made an attacking surge with four tries in just eight minutes with the side’s big forwards leading the scoring action.
“Sam McIntyre on the edge scored two so it is always good when the forwards are getting some tries, it is a good reward for them,” commented Lowrie.
The Under 20s coach ecstatic with his side’s fight until the end despite a score line blowout in their favour.
“One of the most pleasing parts for me as a coach was at the end of the game when they did have some ball down our end and we were leading by 30 odd points,” Lowrie explained.
“The game was out of reach, the opposition had some good ball down our end and we managed to hold them out towards the back end of the game.
“It does show me we can defend our line when we want to but some of the efforts and the attacking stuff that the boys put on was really good.
“It would be hard to single out any players in particular but there were a few that probably played their best game for us in the 20s this year so that’s a good thing.”
The Knights now sit eighth on the NYC ladder, their Round 9 win a relief for Lowrie.
“It is much better going into a bye winning like that than losing,” he said.
“The boys have worked pretty hard over the first couple of months in the competition so it is good, a bit of a reward for this week, we’ll be back in two weeks and go again.”
