In their first ever match, the Knights Under 18s Tarsha Gale side stormed out of the ranks to defeat the St George Dragons 54-10 at Balcomb Field in Dudley on Thursday evening.
The Knights came out in a confident display and from the second quarter piled on a scoring assault to stun the visitors, which saw a hat-trick from centre Shenay Ball and a double from Skye Pullman.
A few nerves provide some early fumbles from both sides but within five minutes the Knights were on the board as winger Emily Harman side stepped her way to the line to score the first points of the evening.
Sophie Buller nailed the conversion for a 6-0 lead to the home side.
Just before quarter time, St George hit back as Aaliyah Fasavalu-fa’amausili slammed through the Knights defence, to trail the red and blue 6-4 into the break.
In the second, Pullman showed impressive speed to slide over under pressure, before a pacey 60 metre run from the number four, then set up a try for teammate Bree O’Neill. Sophie Buller booted her second to see the Knights extend to 16-4.
The Knights didn’t take their foot off the pedal, another from forward Olivia Kernick, who took advantage of a gap in defence, before Pullman recorded the double, this time on the left edge to see the Knights go into halftime with a 26-4 lead.
Not to let the score line play on their minds, St George got a quick four points, minutes into the third, thanks to Adi Ranamola, but Newcastle had it covered with a quick reply from speedster Ball with a length of the field try.
Despite a stop in play with a knee injury seeing a St George player carted off the field, the Knights kept their concentration as Olivia Glanville sprinted to the line and Tia Cook added the extras, with a 38-10 lead into the last quarter.
After a 20-metre run from Harman, several offloads landed in the hands of Ball who finished it off nicely and minutes later she struck again with a 50-metre run to the line.
The Knights not finished yet, Sophie Buller crashed over a wall of defenders for the last try of the evening. She converted her own try to see the Knights record a 54-10 win over St George in their Round 1 encounter.
SUMMARY
Knights 54 (T: Harman, Pullman 2, O’Neill, Kernick, Ball 3, Glanville, Buller, G: Buller 5/6, Johnson 0/1, Cook 1/1, Pullman 1/2)
St George 10
