Knights bounce back to winning ways against Eels

The Knights have emerged from the unfamiliar territory of a winless past fortnight to put on a comprehensive seven-try showing and down the Eels 36-16 on Saturday afternoon at Eric Tweedale Stadium in Sydney.

Despite the absence of star halfback Jesse Southwell due to concussion, the Knights looked back to their best with ball in hand against Parramatta, with teenage debutante Evie Jones impressing in the No.7 jersey and captain Tamika Upton scoring a personal double in addition to laying on two try assists. 

Despite enduring a nervous period midway through the first half when the Eels scored twice in quick succession to reduce the deficit to eight, Newcastle kept their composure to pick up their first win since Round 3, having last week slumped to back-to-back defeats for the first time since 2022.

With kick-off delayed by more than half an hour, when the game finally did get underway the Eels looked like they were still in the sheds mentally, giving up three tries inside the opening 15 minutes to trail 16-0. 

After Upton screamed through to touch the ball down inches from the dead-ball line for the opener, Georgia Roche beat everyone to her own bomb that fell 10 metres from the line and offloaded for Olivia Higgins to score a minute later.  

As Parramatta continued to battle to keep up with the Knights' pace of play, and gave up away a string of penalties on the back of it, Newcastle added a further two strikes down their left edge. 

First Lilly-Ann White took advantage of a defensive line that had been sucked in field, before Upton passed Abigail Roache into a gap from close range. 

Having earlier got over the line twice in vain – with Rachael Pearson's effort ruled out by Bunker review before Rosie Kelly was denied a certain try by a miraculous tackle from Roache – the Eels finally got on the board thanks to a bumping run from Cassey Tohi-Hiku. 

Up 20-4 at the break, the Knights made a dodgy start to the second period when they failed to field the opening kick-off, but five minutes later normal service resumed with Laishon Albert-Jones crashing over for her third try in two games. 

But just as they appeared to be cruising with a 20-point gap, the wheels fell off temporarily for the defending premiers as they gave up tries to Mahalia Murphy and Rosemarie Beckett in the space of four minutes, before a run of penalties and errors threatened to allow the hosts back into the contest. 

A ruck infringement from Abbi Church following a break downfield from the Knights – in which she was lucky not to end up in the sin bin – gifted Roche with a simple shot at two that put the lead back to 10, and from there Newcastle settled back into their grove. 

Jones capped off the result with a try on debut, after beating the Parramatta defence to a bouncing ball and fending off Zali Fay, before Upton broke the line for a solo stunner on the bell.