The Reserve Grade Newcastle Knights were defeated 44-18 by the Penrith Panthers at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
It looked promising early for the Knights but the Panthers piled on 28-points in the first half thanks to a double from fullback Dylan Edwards before the visitors continued their dominance in the second stanza to blow out the score line.
Five minutes in, Knights winger Thomas Cronan found space out wide to dive over for Newcastle’s first but the visitors quickly replied with an offload into the hands of Panthers’ Mitch Rein to cross over the try line. The scores were levelled at 6-6.
Panthers forward Jack Hetherington found a gap in defence to sprint through for their second but later found himself in the sin bin for misconduct.
Taking advantage of the man down, fullback Nick Meaney broke free ten metres from the line before he dished off to Tom Hughes, who finished with the try at the 25-minute mark. Meaney booted the conversion to put the Knights back in front 12-10.
But not for long, the Panthers’ Darren Nicholls soon crashed over for the try before Dylan Edwards scored his second within minutes of the halftime siren to stretch Penrith’s lead 28-12 into the break.
In the 50th minute, Te Maire Martin added to the Panthers tally before Rein claimed the double to push the score line to 38-12.
A Knights mistake off the high ball gifted Michael Oldfield an easy sprint to the try line before the Knights had the last say of the day, Meaney crossing over for the try ten minutes before the final siren.
The Panthers notch up a 44-18 win against the Knights.
SUMMARY
Newcastle Knights 18 (T: Cronan, Hughes, Meaney, G: Meaney 3/3)
Penrith Panthers 44 (T: Rein 2, Hetherington, Nicholls, Edwards 2, Martin, Oldfield, G: Nicholls 1/2, Edwards 5/6)
TEAM
1. Nick Meaney, 2. Tom Hughes, 23. Nathan Ross, 4. Cory Denniss, 5. Thomas Cronan, 6. Will Pearsall, 25 Rex Johnson, 8. Mickey Paea, 14. Tom Starling, 16. Sam Mataora 11. Braden Robson, 12. Pat Mata’utia, 13. Tyrone Amey. Interchange: 17. Pauli Pauli, 18. Joey Morris, 19. Faitotoa Faitotoa, 20. Sam Bernstrom.
