Rekindling memories of his try-scoring days in Terrigal almost 20 years ago, Knights co-captain Daniel Saifiti celebrated his 100th NRL game with a brace of tries as his side beat Canterbury 32-16 on Friday night.
The 24-year-old NSW front-rower charged over to score in the ninth and 48th minutes, capping a dominant performance in which he ran 19 times for 174 metres and made 27 tackles to help the Knights end a six-game home losing streak against the Bulldogs.
"Maybe under 8s at Terrigal Sharks, I’m not sure. I honestly couldn’t tell you," Saifiti said when asked if he recalled the last time he had scored twice.
Before a sell-out crowd of 19,555 under the COVID-19 restrictions of a 75 per cent seating capacity in a game that started in torrential rain, the Knights notched their first victory over the Bulldogs in Newcastle since 2013.
Match: Broncos v Eels
Round 1 -
home Team
Broncos
10th Position
away Team
Eels
7th Position
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Knights coach Adam O’Brien was delighted with the performance of Saifiti and Newcastle’s other co-captain, Jayden Brailey, who also stood out in his first game in almost a year.
"I had goosebumps running out, I’m not gonna lie," Saifiti said.
"I’ve never done that before, never been captain of any team, and for 'Adzy' [O’Brien] to choose me out of all the boys is pretty special and something I don’t take lightly so it’s still pretty crazy thinking about it now. The win was just cherry on top, pretty much."
O’Brien said Saifiti and Brailey led by example at important stages of a game in which the Knights had to twice recover from early deficits.
Saifiti the decoy, Saifiti the double
"We call him [Saifiti] the alpha male, and he certainly showed that tonight," O’Brien said.
"We had a highlight video yesterday and it had too many tries in it for my liking but he went out and got two tonight.
"He’s got so much presence about him. When he walks in the room, the boys are usually pretty quiet trying to gauge what sort of mood he’s in, but he’s just got everyone’s respect, and that’s what you want with the guy that runs out first."
Playing his first game since suffering a torn ACL against Wests Tigers almost 12 months earlier, Brailey played all 80 minutes, made 50 tackles without a miss.
The former Sharks hooker delivered the final pass for Saifiti’s second try, using Daniel’s twin Jacob as a decoy, and combined with Mitchell Pearce to create Saifiti’s first.
"I was really happy after the trial to see him [Brailey] back playing footy again," O’Brien said.
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"Then in the early periods of the second half, both teams were in a bit of a ding-dong there, and the big guys started to find some momentum with quick play the balls and Jayden was direct.
"He just got out and made a decision to run – I thought he was a lot more decisive in the second half with his running game – but for 80 minutes, right in the middle, he did a really good job."
A knee injury to five-eighth Kurt Mann, who could be sidelined for a month with suspected medial ligament damage, and a sprained ankle to centre Bradman Best took some gloss off the win.
O’Brien expects to be without Mann for at least the next few weeks but said he replaced Best as a precaution and did not believe the block-busting young centre’s injury was too serious.
Watson, returning from a torn Achilles suffered against the Bulldogs last July, suffered a scare when he was slow to his feet early in the second half but he proved his fitness by showing speed and desperation to make a try-saving tackle on Sione Katoa in the 79th minute.
O’Brien was pleased with Newcastle’s determination in defence, especially after they crumbled in their final few games last year, culminating in a 46-20 loss to Souths in the first week of the finals.
"I’m really proud of the group," O’Brien said.
"It was a tough performance, and we knew that’s what it had to be, then losing Kurt early it was going to make things even tougher so we showed plenty of grit.
"Without going back too much to last year, but we didn’t end the way we wanted – not just the last game but the last three – but I thought we showed plenty of defensive resolve there tonight and that’s the stuff that we value the most."
