Knights tune up for finals with seven-try romp in Townsville

Defending premiers Newcastle have climbed to second on the NRLW ladder courtesy of a 38-6 win over the Cowboys on Saturday.

The Knights are now equal on 12 competition points with the Roosters, who finish their season against the Eels on Sunday, but have a better points differential of +106 compared to +96 for the Chooks.

Newcastle got off to a flyer when left edge back-rower Yasmin Clydsdale ran a good line in the sixth minute to open the scoring before Tayla Predebon added a second in the 12th minute as the premiers opened up a handy lead.

Come the 19th minute and the Knights were in again when Tamika Upton broke the line and found Olympic gold medalist Tenika Willison in support to make it 18-0.

The Knights got across the line again in the 24th minute when Upton put Abigail Roache into a hole but the centre lost control of the ball on her way to the ground.

Four minutes into the second half Roache made no mistake when she crossed for the Knights' fourth try from another sweetly timed Upton pass.

Trailing 22-0 the Cowboys hit back in the 44th minute when Bree Chester exploded through a Georgia Roche tackle and raced 25 metres to score. Kirra Dibb's conversion made it 22-6.

A superb offload by Clydsdale set up another try for Willison in the 48th minute as the Knights stretched their lead to 28-6.

Slick hands by Upton and Shanice Parker on the right edge created a four-pointer for Sheridan Gallagher, who has now racked up eight tries for the season. Jesse Southwell missed the conversion but the Knights were well and truly home at 32-6.

With eight minutes to play Gallagher continued her hot tryscoring streak when she took a pass from Jesse Southwell to score wide out and the score blew out to 38-6.