A brilliant return from Bradman Best and an Enari Tuala hattrick spearheaded the Knights to a crucial 34-24 win over the Canberra Raiders to breath life into their quest for a finals berth.
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In the context of the season, the win at Suncorp Stadium was massive.
After two consecutive losses, Newcastle were on the brink of bowing out with another defeat. Instead, they produced one of their better attacking performances of the season to keep their hopes alive.
Best, who returned after six weeks out through injury, and a rampant Kalyn Ponga were hugely influential with the Knights bombarding the Raiders' right edge defence. Tuala was the beneficiary, crossing for two first half tries before nabbing a third in the second half.
With Mitchell Pearce likely to return next week, the way the Knights put Canberra away, with their forward pack again leading the way up the middle, will give the side enormous confidence.
The Knights showed no ill-affects in the first half of the rescheduling of the game, getting off to an absolute flier on their way to a 22-6 lead at halftime.
They opened the scoring after just five minutes when Tuala crossed after a slick backline move involving Ponga and Best.
Tuala still had some work to do, beating Raiders fullback Jordan Rapana twice before going over for Jake Clifford to convert.
It was 12-0 just three minutes later when Best again exposed the Raiders' right edge to cross with Ponga and Clifford involved, this time after a Kurt Mann bust.
The Knights defence was every bit as compelling as their attack when they held the Raiders out on their own line for three consecutive sets 17 minutes in before launching another fruitful raid.
This time, at the end of a great set, Mann out-leaped Jarrod Croker to pull down a perfectly-placed Clifford bomb and score in a handy spot for an 18-0 lead.
It took a costly Clifford error deep in his own half to help get Canberra on the board.
A Clifford clearing kick sailed out on the full and Raiders winger Harley Smith-Shields took advantage to cross in the corner a few tackles later. Croker converted for an 18-6 scoreline.
Tuala scored his second right on halftime off another Best bust for the 22-6 lead.
Raiders prop Josh Papalii gave his side a sniff with a converted try eight minutes into the second half but it was all Newcastle after that until the Raiders scored two late consolation tries when the game was in the bag.
Clifford kicked a penalty goal to push it back out to 24-12 before David Klemmer was controversially denied a try. But it mattered little with Tuala scoring his third in the corner off Ponga soon after.
When Ponga crossed from a scrum with 14 minutes left, the lead had blown out to 34-12.