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Sport Nation
Knights scoring woes continue with fifth straight loss
Nicholas Quinlan • April 26th, 2025 1:06 pm
The New Zealand Warriors remain undefeated in their home country with a dominant win against the Newcastle Knights.
The Warriors won 26 to 12 at Apollo Projects Stadium in Christchurch on Anzac Day as they are now ensconced in the top eight.
New Zealand would be in control from start to finish despite Marata Niukore being sin-binned and on report in the first minute of the game for a dangerous tackle.
But he was soon followed by Newcastle’s Leo Thompson in the fourth minute bringing the match to a 12 v 12 for the first 10 minutes of the game.
From there, the Warriors would score first through Adam Pompey and didn’t look back.
They would score the next two tries thanks to Jackson Ford with Luke Metcalf’s conversion putting the game out of reach of the Knights by half-time.
For the Knights, the match has made their scoring woes only become more obvious.
Across their seven games for the season, they have only scored above 20 points once.
This sees Newcastle sit comfortably last in the NRL for points scored (72). The next closest is North Queensland at 116 points which shows the gulf between them and the rest.
Errors were also prominent within Newcastle’s play throughout the match as they conceded 15 errors to the Warriors' nine.
Speaking post-game, Knights coach Adam O’Brien was pleased by the Knights to complete more than 70% of their sets.
However, he puts their scoring issues down to the inexperience of his side.
“Some of it's personnel,” O’Brien noted.
“We’ve got some young guys out there at the moment with our experienced guys missing.
“Some confidence and connection stuff. If it was an easy answer, it would be fixed by now."
Newcastle will look to break their five-game losing streak against the South Sydney Rabbitohs in Magic Round next Saturday.
For the Warriors, they will face off against North Queensland in their Magic Round game which will take place after the conclusion of the Newcastle v South Sydney match.
