RD 21: Sharks vs Knights

[Queenslander]

CRONULLA SHARKS v NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Friday 28th July at Toyota Park, 7.30pm

Referee: Shayne Hayne

Team Notes:

Sharks: Kevin Kingston will miss theis clash after being suspended for a dangerous tackle. He has been replaced by Matt Hilder at hooker.

Knights:: Reegan Tanner & George Carmont both return from injury after being injured agianst the Storm a few weeks ago. Of the 30 occasions these two teams have met the Knights have won 16 and drawn once.

SHARKS:

Brett Kearney,
Darren Albert,
Nigel Vagana,
Ben Pomeroy,
Luke Covell,
Adam Dykes,
Brett Kimmorley (capt),
James Stosic,
Matt Hilder,
Luke Douglas,
Greg Bird,
Lance Thompson,
Paul Gallen.

Interchange:

Richard Villasanti,
Darren Mapp,
Reece Williams,
Beau Scott.

KNIGHTS:

Milton Thaiday,
Brian Carney,
Matthew Gidley,
George Carmont,
Anthony Quinn,
Jarrod Mullen,
Andrew Johns (capt),
Craig Smith,
Danny Buderus,
Josh Perry,
Steve Simpson,
Clint Newton,
Reegan Tanner.

Interchange:

Luke Davico,
Adam Woolnough,
Todd Lowrie,
Kirk Reynoldson,
Daniel Abraham (one to be omitted).

***Use this thread for game day spoilers***

[Townsville Titan]

Pickin the Knights...

[Darren Lockyer]

Knights to win by 12+

[Queenslander]

Johns and Kimmorley renew rivalry
By Dean Ritchie and Barry Toohey
July 27, 2006

SHARKS halfback Brett Kimmorley acknowledges that confronting Andrew Johns one-on-one is unconditionally the toughest challenge in rugby league.

Kimmorley and Newcastle counterpartJohns renew their amazing 13-year rivalry in tomorrow night's match at Toyota Park.

The pair have competed against one another for nine years, while Kimmorley, before that, was Johns' understudy at Newcastle.

Kimmorley and Johns have constantly jostled for representative spots over the years, and played against one another in 12 matches - with each winning six games.

The battles between the two have been compared to Steve Mortimer's clashes with Peter Sterling in the 1980s and Ricky Stuart's confrontations with Allan Langer in the 1990s.

Newcastle and the Sharks sit on 22 points - the loser tomorrow night possibly slipping to 10th spot.

Asked if Johns provided rugby league's biggest challenge, Kimmorley said: "I think so. He can change a game so quickly.

"Playing against Joey is a great challenge.

"But I will be making a conscious effort to sit back a little in this game."

Kimmorley admitted his Sharks had fallen away in recent weeks.

"We are letting ourselves down and putting pressure on ourselves," he said.

"Maybe it's the same for them. They were favourites at the start of the year."

Johns last night spoke about his battles with Kimmorley.

"We have never been close mates but there has never been a problem there either," Johns said.

"We have just been two guys doing everything we could to get our sides home when we played against each other."

The Daily Telegraph

[Eel 33]

Knights by 10

[DeeGan]

Cronulla Sharks to win at home. Kimmorley thrives on the big game vs Johns (who can forget the lesson he taught Joey when he picked up 10 out of 10 in the RLW in 2002 at Toyota Park) and the Knights looked ordinary last start - in particular their forwards.

[Titanium_BD1103]

SPOILERS

Highlight to Read

Almost Half-Time

Cronulla Sharks: 12
(Gallen, Thompson Tries, Covell 2 Goals)

Newcastle Knights: 10
(Carmont, Carney Tries, Johns Goal)

[Queenslander]

FINAL SCORE

Johns steers Knights to victory
By Steve Jancetic
July 29, 2006

Sharks 18 Newcastle 22

NEWCASTLE coach Michael Hagan hailed the performance of Andrew Johns last night as one of his best ever captain's knocks.

The Knights maestro backed up a tremendous kicking game with the match-winning try to reaffirm the Knights' spot in the top eight and consign the Sharks to a fifth straight defeat.

After pressuring the top four only a matter of weeks ago, the Sharks may now find themselves as low as 10th by the end of the weekend if results go against them.

With the Sharks leading 18-16 in a see-sawing contest that had already seen the lead change hands four times, Johns put the Knights up for good 19 minutes from time when he beat a flimsy effort from Sharks prop Hutch Maiava to dive over next to the posts.

"I thought one of his outstanding games as captain," Hagan said.

"He was extremely positive in his performance ... his vision and his awareness was again extremely good, his kicking game was of the highest order, I couldn't rap him enough."

The champion No.7 deflected the praise to his teammates before declaring the Knights contenders for this year's title.


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"Once we're in the semis, I think we've got the big-name players, I think we're a chance," he said.

Johns had the Sharks back three under pressure all game with an aerial assault that will give makeshift fullback Brett Kearney nightmares for days to come.

Johns' first high ball led to a George Carmont try after just eight minutes, and the home side was trapped in its own in-goal on several occasions after failing to effectively diffuse the bombing raids.

Some clever work from Paul Gallen got the Sharks back into the contest, the New South Wales State of Origin forward scoring one try and setting up another for fellow back rower Lance Thompson before Knights wing Brian Carney cut the gap to two points just before the break.

Both sides started poorly in the second stanza, with rival forwards Adam Woolnough and Reece Williams trading tries.

Sharks coach Stuart Raper was critical of his side's inability to take advantage when the Knights f dropped a series of balls inside their own half.

"We're playing at a certain level but it's not getting us a victory," Raper said.

"This game's all about winning and we're not doing that at the moment.

"We've got to realise that, the players have got to realise that, sometimes doing so much is good but it's not good enough."

The Sharks could be without Greg Bird for some time, as the in-form back rower suffering a suspected broken rib late in the contest.


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NEWCASTLE 22 (G Carmont B Carney A Johns A Woolnough tries A Johns 3 goals)
SHARKS 18 (P Gallen L Thompson R Williams tries L Covell 3 goals)
Referee: S Hayne.
Crowd: 17,574, at Toyota Park.

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