Star Newcastle recruit Darius Boyd showed his fans how important he will be to the Knights’ premiership aspirations with a classy display in an 18-all draw against Penrith in a NRL trial at Port Macquarie on Saturday night.

Boyd showed glimpses of his Clive Churchill medal-winning form and made an easy transition into the Knights backline, setting up a try in the first half with a long cut-out pass to Kevin Naiqama.

Knights favourite son Danny Buderus was solid before being replaced after 30 minutes in his comeback match for the club.

Penrith halfback Luke Walsh ran his side around the paddock well, but it was his halves partner Travis Burns who looked the most dangerous Panther in the first half.

Burns scored a try and attacked well on both sides of the park.

Penrith prop Tim Grant was great up front for his side with plenty of strong carries over the advantage line.

The Knights were solid, but Wayne Bennett still has a lot of work to do to get them playing with the same level of discipline and intensity as he did with the Dragons.

Overall, it was a very scrappy game that only deteriorated as it went on but, in a positive for both coaches, the only injury concern was a broken nose to Knights player Tyrone Roberts.

Knights captain Kurt Gidley said Bennett would be disappointed with his team’s first hit-out.

“There’s a few things to work on. We dropped a bit of ball in the first half which was a bit disappointing,” Gidley said.

“He (Bennett) was a bit disappointed with the drop ball and penalties and we compounded those two things together which is not good.”

Penrith coach Ivan Cleary was in a more positive mood after the match and said his side had plenty to take out of the game.

“I thought it was a decent hit-out,” he said.

“We were under a bit of pressure and were defending our line near the end, but we came up with some last-ditch tackles and I was happy to see that.”