The Newcastle Knights have maintained their recent good run of results with a hard-fought 21-10 win over the Cronulla Sharks at EnergyAustralia Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Newcastle fought back from an early Ben Pomeroy try to lead 12-6 at half-time via four-pointers to Ben Rogers and Matt Hilder. The Knights then controlled the second half with a try to Junior Sa’u and two penalty goals to Kurt Gidley for a 20-6 lead.
The Sharks grabbed a late consolation try to Luke Covell before Mullen slotted a field goal in the last minute to give the Knights their third win in a row and maintain their charge towards the finals.
The win lifts Newcastle to 18 points just one win out top eight while the Sharks remain in 14th place on 14 points with hopes fading for a finals berth this season.
The Sharks had the better of the opening exchanges with some dropped ball from the Knights and a couple of penalties putting the visitors on the attack and they took advantage scoring the first try in the seventh minute.
Trent Barrett showed the ball inside and out before finding Anthony Tupou, who delivered a flat ball for centre Pomeroy to crash over 18 metres to the left of the posts. Covell, playing in his first match since sustaining a knee injury in round four, kicked the conversion to give the Sharks a 6-0 lead.
The Knights wrestled back momentum with some penalties of their own and levelled the scores in the 13th minute via five-eighth Ben Rogers, who stepped inside three players close to the line to slam the ball down 10m to the right of the posts. Kurt Gildey converted to make 6-6.
Newcastle extended its lead in the 22nd minute when veteran Adam MacDougall stepped his way through the defence before popping a ball to second-rower Zeb Taia. He charged into the Sharks 20 then found hooker Hilder on the inside for the try. Gidley added the extras to give the Knights a 12-6 lead.
The Knights looked to have scored their third try 12 minutes before half-time when Rogers again showed his sidestepping talent to reach over the paint only for Antonio Kaufusi, playing in his debut match for Newcastle, penalized for impeding Sharks forward Josh Cordoba in defence.
Both sides had late chances in the half with Sharks winger Blake Ferguson putting a chip kick into the in-goal only to be thwarted by Rogers, before Covell was able to clean up a Jarrod Mullen grubber off his own line just in front of MacDougall and Akuila Uate to send the Knights to the sheds leading 12-6.
The Knights took hold of the match when they scored in just the third minute after half-time. A slick backline movement saw Gidley work a double man for hard-running centre Sa’u to bust his way over wide out on the left flank. Gidley slice his conversion wide to leave the Knights holding a 16-6 lead.
Newcastle did everything to keep Cronulla in the match. Gidley inexplicably kicked the ball into touch on just the second play after a Cory Paterson intercept had the Sharks defence in disarray. Ben Cross allowed himself to be bundled into touch just 10m out from his own line and then Gidley was again the culprit when he made a great break on the half-way line