Towering winger Dom Young showed his potential and new halfback Adam Clune looked settled as the Newcastle Knights began their 2022 campaign with a 16-all trial match draw against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at McDonald Jones Stadium on Monday night.
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The Knights scored three tries in the first half while playing with a full-strength side to lead 16-10 at the break and did well to restrict the Bulldogs to only one try in the second stanza.
The Bulldogs were without multiple NRL regulars including Matt Burton, Josh Addo-Carr and Brent Naden but with Newcastle making wholesale changes at halftime, they crept back into the contest and levelled the score in the 60th minute.
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The Knights' starting halves Adam Clune and Jake Clifford both impressed and were involved early with a Clune grubber earning a repeat set before Clifford scored the opening try after just two minutes.
Clifford went solo from inside 10 metres to score on the blind side before converting his own try.
The Knights went 12-0 up 10 minutes later with young back-rower Jirah Momoisea hitting a gap off a short David Klemmer pass and scoring almost untouched.
Kalyn Ponga was flattened by Bulldogs winger Declan Casey shortly after a drinks break midway through the half with the hit dislodging the ball and allowing the away side to run downfield.
They scored a few plays later with right winger Jayden Okunbor on the end of a long cutout pass to put his side on the scoreboard.
Matt Dufty ran almost 100 metres in the 28th minute to score his side's second try after Knights centre Dane Gagai lost the ball a few metres out from the try line.
Dom Young, who had multiple chances on the left wing in the first half, finally got a try in the 34th minute with halfback Clune throwing a long floating pass to the towering 20-year-old.
Only a handful of Newcastle's starting players returned in the second half with a host of fringe NRL players given an opportunity.
The Knights B-side was solid in defence but lost fullback Bailey Hodgson midway through the half to injury.
The Bulldogs equalized in the 60th minute with Reece Hoffman jumping up to grab a bounced ball in the in-goal to score.
Neither side was able to break the deadlock in the last 20 minutes.
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