The NYC Newcastle Knights found it difficult in greasy conditions with a 32-12 loss to the Manly Sea Eagles at Lottoland on Friday afternoon.
A downpour of rain cleared up early as the home side piled on 18 unanswered points in the first half but while the Knights started to find the line in the second stanza, it wasn’t enough as Manly was able to grind out a dominant win.
The first points came via Manly’s five eighth Tom Wright with an intercepted cross field kick, running close to 80 metres to score the try.
Jade Anderson was successful with the conversion for the Sea Eagles to lead the Knights 6-0.
In the 28th minute, Wright dished off to centre Brad Parker who found space for Manly’s second and just before half time Haumole Olakauatu came off the bench to crash through a wall of defence to cross over.
The Sea Eagles led 18-0 into the break.
In the second half, winger Mitch Andrews scored the Knights' first in the left corner but the Sea Eagles quickly replied as an error saw a double from Wright through the middle. Manly led the Knights 22-6.
52 minutes in, Kainoa Gudgeon intercepted a pass to run 50 metres down field to score. The winger converted his own try as the Knights trailed 22-12.
Adding more points to his tally, Anderson crossed over wide before another came 62 minutes in via Alfred Smalley for Manly to stretch their lead to 32-12 and seal the win.
Summary
Newcastle Knights 12 (T: Andrews, Gudgeon, G: Gudgeon 2/2)
Manly Sea Eagles 32 (T: Wright 2, Parker, Olakauatu, Anderson, Smalley, G: Anderson 4/6)
Squads
Newcastle
1. Matt Cooper, 2. Mitch Andrews, 23. Kyle Smith, 4. Heath Gibbs, 5. Kainoa Gudgeon, 6. Hayden Loughrey, 7. Jack Cogger, 8. Cameron King, 9. Nash Birch, 10. Pasami Saulo, 11. Jack Johns, 12. Sam McIntyre, 13. Zac Hosking. Interchange: 14. Dylan Clark, 15. Henry Penn, 16. Matt Croker, 17. Jayden Butterfield.
Manly
1.Luke Polselli, 2. Jade Anderson, 3. Brad Parker, 4. Blake Andrews, 5. Alfred Smalley, 6. Tom Wright, 16. Cade Cust, 8. Jaiden Tarrant, 9. Manase Fainu, 10. Taniela Paseka, 11. Billy Bainbridge, 12. Josh Martin, 13. Jesse Martin. Interchange. 14. Haumole Olakauatu, 15. Elia Faatui, 17. John Tuivati, 21. Zaan Weatherall.
