Penrith Panthers 8
Newcastle made a flying start to the new National Rugby League season with a 42-8 thumping of Penrith at Centrebet Stadium today.
The Knights showed great fluency in attack, with halfback Jarrod Mullen scoring a try and laying on a couple more in a dominant display.
The quality of their performance suggests the Knights could be surprise packets this year, but they won't want to get too carried away given the Panthers' ineptitude.
Early indications are it could be a long season for Penrith, who finished second in 2010.
Matt Elliott's men could barely get out of first gear and looked toothless in attack - with their only try coming from Lachlan Coote after the fulltime siren had sounded.
The home side made a whopping 21 errors and conceded four penalties for indiscretions off restarts. Three were for being offside kick-offs and drop outs and one after booting out dead-on-the-full.
Newcastle coach Rick Stone couldn't have asked for a better start to the season performance-wise, but he has come out of the match with some injury worries.
New recruit Neville Costigan was forced up the tunnel early in the first half with what looked a serious arm injury, incurred when he struck Petero Civoniceva's knee in a tackle attempt.
Costigan didn't return and left for scans during the match with fears he'd broken his arm.
While early in the second 40 minutes, captain Kurt Gidley left the field with a slight limp and didn't come back.
Mullen started the rout with a bomb, which he then cleaned up to score, after a spill by Panthers fullback Coote.
Then the Knights unleashed their two game breakers out wide to take a 22-2 lead into halftime.
First it was powerful centre Junior Sau, who muscled his way over in the 24th minute, before electric winger Akuila Uate chased through a clever Gidley kick six minutes later to evade Coote and touch down under the posts.
Sau crashed over again in the second half to complete an outstanding double, while debutant five-eighth Beau Henry scored off a Mullen kick and played solidly.
NEWCASTLE 42 (J Sau 2 K Gidley B Henry M Hilder J Mullen A Uate tries W Naiqama 4 K Gidley 3 goals) bt PENRITH 8 (L Coote try M Gordon 2 goals) at Penrith Stadium. Referee: Ben Cummins, Tony De Las Heras. Crowd: 12,431.
- AAP
