Looking Back: The Knights Win Against All Odds
Last updated: Apr 30, 2018, 4:44AM | Published: Apr 27, 2018, 2:31AM
The Newcastle Knights pulled off a stunning comeback victory against all odds on Saturday night against the Wests Tigers in Tamworth. Shaun Kenny-Dowall went from villain to hero as his late try sealed what would be a dramatic late win.
Newcastle led 10-0 at halftime before the Tigers ran in three tries in eight minutes to jump out to an 18-10 lead. Prior to this Newcastle were controversially ruled not to have taken the ball in-goal through Kenny-Dowall immediately after the half restarted.
Ken Sio scored a memorable hat-trick, including his third try in the 69th minute which gave the Knights a glimmer of hope. Kalyn Ponga's horror show kicking night was spared further embarrassment as his team saved him, despite only converting 1 of his 5 attempts.
Mitchell Pearce's severe pectoral injury would rule him out of the final few minutes, but Kenny-Dowall climbed above Malakai Watene-Zelezniak in the 78th minute off a Jamie Buhrer cross-kick to give the Knights a late lead and an emotional win.
The brilliance of Newcastle's win is all the more impressive and all the more unlikely considering they were less than twenty percent chance of victory with less than five minutes to go.
