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Newcastle’s 10th straight win on the trot came in extra time, without halfback Jackson Hastings and bearing a sensational biting allegation against Jack Wighton in the last of his 241 games for Canberra.
Rugby league isn’t just alive and well in the Steel City. It’s had several shots of steroids.
Bashed, bullied and beaten for the entire first half, the Knights sent 29,548 fans into raptures as they somehow kept their season alive, a 30-28 win for the ages earning them a date with the Warriors on Saturday in New Zealand.
Fittingly, it was captain Kalyn Ponga nudging over an 88th-minute penalty goal when Hudson Young had been pinged for being well offside, players on both sides dropping with cramp and exhaustion everywhere you looked.
And for all the madness and mayhem of 10 tries and countless momentum swings, it was the 47th-minute allegation against Wighton that set them off in the stands and on the paddock.
Coming out of his own end, the South Sydney-bound star was tackled by Newcastle’s Tyson Gamble and the five-eighth’s arm slipped up around Wighton’s face as the ruck descended to the turf.
Dominic Young and the Knights celebrate during their epic extra-time finals win.Credit: NRL Photos
Gamble reeled out of the contact pointing to a mark on his arm immediately afterwards as replays showed Wighton’s mouth on his forearm and a visible mark being left afterwards.
“Mate that’s slobber, that’s not sweat. There’s a bite mate. He bit me,” Gamble remonstrated with referee Ashley Klein, who told the Bunker “I have got one line of teeth marks alone.”
“I can’t move my mouth, he’s got to move his arm,” Wighton responded afterwards as officials reviewed the incident and Klein eventually put the Raiders star on report.
The matter wasn’t so much settled as put to the side. Because then Ponga went to work. And to a man, the Raiders and Knights put on one hell of a show.
Tyson Gamble’s forearm.Credit: FoxSports
Ponga’s 47th-minute try was the first of three he was involved in, reeling in Canberra’s 16-6 half-time advantage. When Dominic Young finished off the first short-side raid down the right edge, and Dane Gagai the second, 22-16 it stood with 20 minutes to go.
And they weren’t done.
Neither were Canberra though, especially with Jamal Fogarty launching one of his lethal crossfield kicks for rookie winger James Schiller, owner of two first-half tries.
Down the ball came with Gamble once more. And when his legs could outrun the defence no more, down the sideline went Young for the most remarkable of revivals.
James Schiller scores one of his two first-half tries for Canberra.Credit: Getty
Or so it seemed. A Matt Frawley show and go, Gamble falling for it all ends up, trimmed the Knights advantage back to 28-22.
Canberra kept coming. Even if they couldn’t find the right option, Newcastle’s goal-line defence denying clunky backline sweeps while players were out on their feet.
Eventually, they just had to wilt. Elliott Whitehead popped an offload through a ragged defence for Tom Starling to score with three minutes remaining.
But if the Roosters’ triumph without a slew of stars on Saturday night was one of the gutsiest finals wins in recent memory, this was even better.
When Canberra led by 10 at the break, the Knights looked down, out and without a halfback.
Hastings’ ankles clipped together moments before the break – the No.7 floored, then limping, and eventually ruled out for the game by the same ankle injury he brought into it.
Under the Raiders’ swarming defensive line, Gamble was harassed into badly mistiming a kick, punting out on the full.
And after being bashed and bullied for the entire first half, the Knights were then outrun, Schiller streaking down the left-hand touchline for Canberra’s third try of the half.
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Greg Marzhew’s opening try in the fifth minute was but a speck in the Raiders rearview mirror by then.
And Marzhew, whose bench press and deadlift numbers would make a grown accountant weep, ended up under the wheels of Whitehead, taking a break from pestering referee Ashley Klein to punish the Knights winger.
Before the biting drama, Wighton belted anything that moved. One heavy hit forced Gagai into error for Canberra and Schiller’s first for the day. The ambush was well and truly on. At the other end of proceedings, he may be in further hot water over a late, high hit on Ponga.
Newcastle’s reward for withstanding it is now a rendezvous with the Warriors in just six days.
Rugby league in the Hunter – alive and well all right.
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