Kalyn Ponga has fired Newcastle to a 15-10 NRL win to heap pressure on an out-of-form Brisbane at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday.
Ponga has arguably been the form fullback of the first five weeks of the season and was instrumental in the Knights’ third win of the year.
The Knights were the better side for most of the contest however the match went down to the wire after tries to Corey Oates and Anthony Milford set up a grandstand finish.
The Broncos had a 79 per cent completion rate, forced the Knights to make seven line drop outs and had 29 tackles inside the opposition red zone but couldn’t convert their advantage into points for most of the match.
After a week in which questions were asked about Anthony Milford and Kodi Nikorima, the Broncos halves once again failed to stand up.
Milford was instrumental in the Broncos’ fightback but his night was rocks and diamonds – on several occasions he had the Knights defence shot but either took the wrong option or threw it into the dirt.
Meanwhile Ponga was rock solid in defence and dynamic in attack as he ran for 176 metres in a standout effort.
Despite having just turned 20 eight days ago and being 14 games into his first-grade career he is increasingly looking ready-made for the State of Origin arena.
He set up the only try of the first-half when skipped to the outside of the Broncos defence, drawing in Kodi Nikorima, before shooting Lachlan Fitzgibbon through a hole.
A Mitchell Pearce field goal on the bell gave the home side a 7-0 advantage at the break.
After some relentless Knights defence pinned the Broncos down their end, Pearce broke the Broncos’ back when he sent Daniel Saifiti inside and caught out some lazy marker defence.
Knights winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall had a howler of a night and the Broncos got their first points after he made a mess of a re-start.
Darius Boyd found a flying Corey Oates on the wing to beat Kenny-Dowall to the left corner to make it 13-4.
And when Anthony Milford powered his way over, it was suddenly 15-10 with five minutes on the clock.
However the Knights held on to break a six-game losing streak against the Broncos.
The Broncos are now 2-3 and have lost their past two, heaping pressure on coach Wayne Bennett.
