Warriors 32 Newcastle 24
Warriors five-eighth James Maloney has scored the match-sealing try and booted six from six to lead his side to a 32-24 NRL victory over Newcastle at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
Maloney tallied a personal points haul of 16 points, knocking over a controversial penalty goal to create an eight-point buffer late in the second half before icing the cake with a 78th minute four-pointer.
The Knights crashed to their third straight loss and fifth in their last sixth starts against the Kiwi side.
Warriors cult hero Manu Vatuvei bagged a double as the Warriors scored five tries to four in an entertaining, if sometimes scrappy, affair.
It was 12-12 at the break and the Knights withstood some early Warriors pressure before prop Jeremy Latimore plucked a Lance Hohaia bomb from Cory Paterson's grasp in the 53rd minute to help the visitors to 18-12.
It only took four minutes for Newcastle to get back on level terms, though, when Akuila Uate continued his amazing season of tryscoring, completing a classy backline move and leaving Hohaia looking like a statue in the process.
It was 24-18 to the Warriors by the 63rd minute when a Lewis Brown bust put Vatuvei over for his second, before the controversial penalty, against Knights back-rower Zeb Taia, which drew the ire of the 10,535 crowd.
The Kiwi international was pinged for a shot on Warriors halfback Isaac John as he was kicking in general play and Maloney made no mistake from 20 out to the left to make it 26-18 before a Matt Hilder try narrowed the margin to two points.
The Warriors had failed to capitalise on a big southerly when the sides went to the break locked at 12-12.
Their opening had resembled a comedy when Jerome Ropati was tackled in-goal after a Warriors scrum and Hohaia was tackled into touch on his own 20m line - all in the first five minutes.
That second error led to Junior Sa'u's fifth-minute try before some Warriors razzle-dazzle resulted in Joel Moon crashing over six minutes later.
The visitors extended their lead to 12-6 when Aaron Heremaia sent Vatuvei over untouched in the 18th minute but the Knights were back equal in the 24th when Taia pounced on a Scott Dureau grubber which had rebounded off Warriors forward Lewis Brown.
Knights fullback Wes Naiqama could find himself in trouble with the NRL match review committee after what looked like a trip on Hohaia early in the second half.
- AAP
