Knights keep hope of avoiding the Spoon alive

The Newcastle Knights have kept their chances of the avoiding the Wooden Spoon alive after defeating the Cronulla Sharks 44-14 tonight at Energy Australia Stadium.

It was all to easy from the very start and as per usual Andrew Johns controlled things for the Knights as he set up the first try for Bradley Tighe and then six minutes later the Knights scored again to give them a 12-0 lead.

They made it 22-0 in the following ten minutes through a very soft try for Milton Thaiday and then a grubber kick from Andrew Johns came off Brett Kimmorley and into the hands of Daniel Tolar who scored his first try of his career. The Knights were carving up the Sharks.

Two quick tries before the break through Kurt Gidley and Clint Newton, both were set up again by Johns, gave the Knights a lead of 34-0 at half time.

It didn’t take long after the break for Newcastle to get going again as Dustin Cooper scored a try, but ten minutes after that Luke Covell went in for Cronulla's first try.

With 20 minutes to go, Johns sliced through some rather ordinary Sharks defense to score another Knights try that made the score line 44-4.

The last two tries both went to the Cronulla Sharks through David Simmons.

Next week, Cronulla's begins their finals campaign earlier than expected when they tackle the resurgent Bunnies at home, while Newcastle confronts, the minor premier in waiting, St George-Illawarra at Kogarah.

•  Have a view on this story? Send us your feedback!