The NYC Newcastle Knights were defeated 40-12 by the Brisbane Broncos at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Brisbane’s forward Payne Haas was unstoppable as he recorded an impressive hat-trick and the visitors stunned the fourth-placed Knights with a 26-point second stanza.
E Knights forward Matt Croker grabbed a sneaky offload from Zac Hosking to charge through a wall of Broncos and land the first try of the day in the 8th minute. Kainoa Gudgeon lined up for the kick and was successful to put Newcastle in the lead, 6-0.
After a period of end-to-end footy, the Broncos were able to level it up 6-all in the 24th minute via Payne Haas, who crashed over the line near the posts before minutes later, Brandon Russell wrestled his way to the line.
The Broncos capitalised on a mistake from the red and blues to see five-eighth Haydyn O’Hara record a try out wide in the 34th minute. The Broncos stretched their lead 14-6 into the half time break.
In the second half, an unfortunate bounce off the first set landed in the hands of Russell to record the double before the Broncos went out wide to winger David Fauid who dived over 44 minutes.
In the 54th minute it was another for the visitors via Kotoni Staggs, again favouring the right.
The Knights' Hayden Loughrey chased down a clever grubber to crash through in the 63rd minute and with the conversion the Knights trailed 28-12.
The Broncos fired again in the 73rd minute, as Haas got his second and with two minutes on the clock, Haas crashed over for the hat-trick.
Summary
Newcastle Knights 12 (T: Croker, Loughrey, G: Gudgeon 2/2)
Brisbane Broncos 40 (T: Haas 3, Russell 2, O’Hara, Fauid, Staggs, G: Burns 2/4, O’Hara 0/1, Staggs 2/3)
Team
1. Matt Cooper, 2. Mitch Andrews, 3. Kyle Smith, 4. Heath Gibbs, 5. Kainoa Gudgeon, 6. Kurtis Dark, 7. Jack Johns, 8. Cameron King, 23. Tom Starling, 10. Matt Croker, 11. Henry Penn, 12. Sam McIntyre, 13. Zac Hosking. Interchange: 14. Hayden Loughrey, 15. Will Finau, 16. Brodie Jones, 17. Jayden Butterfield.
