The nib Newcastle Knights Jersey Flegg side continued their winning streak on the road Friday night in an 28-18 win over the North Sydney Bears at North Sydney Oval.
The Knights were quick to open up the scoring, with three tries in the first 15 minutes from Will Davies (8th minute), Hayden Loughrey (10th minute) and Beau Fermor (15th minute).
Second row kicking sensation Kurtis Dark was in fine form, and nailed all three conversions, giving the Knights an 18-0 lead.
Bears' winger Tyrone Taukamo slipped past the defence on the right side in the 19th minute in an attempt to even up the early scoring display by the Knights.
The try was converted by fullback Keiran Hayman, and the Knights led the Bears 18-6.
The Knights continued to be a challenge for the Bears edge defence and sent over wingers Lachlan Farr and Justin Worley on opposite sides of the field in back to back sets.
Dark was unsuccessful in converting either try, and the Knights led the Bears 26-6 in the 27th minute.
The Bears quickly responded, getting the ball back after kick off and breaking the scrambled Knights defence to send over centre Ethan Abou-Ghaida on the left edge.
Hayman maintained his kicking form and converted the try in the 28th minute, with the Bears trailing the Knights 26-12.
The Bears controlled the tempo of the game coming into the 30th minute, and on oversight by the Knights defence saw an overlap on the right edge with winger Taukamo crossing to line to collect his second try of the night.
The try was converted by Hayman and the Bears trailed 26-18 in the 32nd minute.
A much needed penalty in favour of the Knights helped sway control of the game in favour of the away team, and Dark sent one flying over the dot to collect two points, and extend the Knights lead to 10 coming into half time.
The second half saw 40 minutes of end-to-end football and was low on excitement, as neither team added points to their halftime scores.
A huge tackle in the 57th minute saw Bears' left winger Nicholas Mougios assisted from the field for an HIA, in place of Cameron Yeates who took control of the Bears left edge. Mougios was cleared of any head injury and retook the field in the 68th minute.
Bears' captain Joshua Cook was given 10 minutes in the sin bin in the 74th minute, which brought the home team down to 12 for the remainder of the game, however the Knights could not capitalise and remained scoreless in the second half.
Team
1. Matt Cooper, 2. Lachlan Farr, 3. Brayden Musgrove, 4. Ofa Manuofetoa, 5. Justin Worley, 6. Nash Birch, 7. Hayden Loughrey, 8. Matt Croker, 9. Tom Starling, 10. Jirah Momoisea, 11. Kurtis Dark, 12. Beau Fermor, 13. Brandon Russell. Interchange. 14. Tevita Alifa, 15. Joe Bromage, 16. Luke Huth, 17. Will Davies.
