Sharks great escape as Atkinson sinks Knights in golden point

It was third time lucky for Sharks five-eighth Daniel Atkinson, who kicked the winning field goal in his third attempt to see his side claim a 19-18 win over the Knights. 

In a closely-fought game where momentum changed between the two sides throughout the match, Atkinson's boot came to the fore as the game wore on, including nailing a difficult conversion from the sideline late in the match to draw scores level to 18-18, before eventually claiming the win at PointsBet Stadium. 

The Sharks had the worst start to the game, giving up a penalty in the opening minute, but the Knights were not able to capitalise, coughing up their gift of possession to Cronulla didn't need any more invitation and scored two quick-tries, with Atkinson scoring the first and having an involvement in the second to fire out to a 10-6 lead. 

However, despite ball handling being an issue for the Knights in the early stages, they put in a spirited showing to stay in touch and hit back with their first try of the half thanks to Kai Pearce-Paul just running hard and fighting to get the ball down on the line. Initially sent up to the Bunker as a no try, the call was overturned after it was deemed the Englishman got the ball on the line.

The visitors locked the scores up with just under 10 minutes left in the half, going from the middle to the left and back to the right side of the field, with Kalyn Ponga throwing a lovely ball out to his left for Greg Marzhew to gather, run in and put down for another try. Ponga kicked the extras for a 12-10 lead. 

Newcastle held on to that lead into the break, despite Knights halfback Phoenix Crossland giving up a penalty and being sent to the sin bin on the stroke of halftime for attempting to slow down the play-the-ball. Atkinson's goal attempt however hit the right crossbar to keep scores unchanged.

After the break, the Sharks were on the attack early, but committed defence from Knights skipper Ponga cause Siosifa Talakai to drop the ball over the line. 

Instead, it was the Knights to add to the points tally first - despite being a player short - with Ponga successfully slotting a penalty goal. They skipped further in front when representative centre Dane Gagai proved hard to bring down, putting on a step on his way to the line to push the Knights out to an 18-10 lead.

The following stage of the game was a grind, with the next points coming to the Sharks in the form of a penalty goal to keep them within a converted try at 18-12. 

Newcastle errors were proving costly and after giving up multiple six-agains on their line, their defence finally broke, with winger Ronaldo Mulitalo able to celebrate his injury return with a try right out on the left touchline, despite a gallant attempt to hold him up from Fletcher Sharpe.

Atkinson nailed the sideline conversion and the scores were level at 18-18 with just over five minutes left in the match. 

Ponga tried to kick a field goal, but the Knights gave up a penalty for blocking and were unsuccessful in their captain's challenge. Atkinson then followed up with his attempt, but it was charged down and despite being regathered by the Sharks, and they were then also pinged for blockers in his follow-up attempt. 

No side could break through in regular time, taking the match to golden point. 

Crossland was the first to make a field goal attempt in the first period of extra time, but it went away to the right - giving the Sharks their opportunity to go on the attack again and this time Atkinson was successful, giving the Sharks the win.

Next week, the Sharks will close the round on Sunday night when they head to WIN Stadium, Wollongong to take on the Dragons while the Knights will play on Saturday night at Accor Stadium against the Bunnies.