Dwell
Kalyn Ponga concedes he should hold himself on the sector to win again his Queensland No.1 jersey after overcoming a number of head knocks to assist Newcastle to a 28-18 NRL victory over Manly.
In his first recreation for the Knights since being axed for State of Origin I, Ponga overcome a shaky begin to look harmful in each contact at fullback and arrange a attempt within the Knights’ win.
Crucially, he was in a position to bounce again from three head knocks to play the 80 minutes after Queensland selectors admitted Ponga’s historical past of concussions and a head harm evaluation final week performed a job into his Origin snub.
Ponga insists the Maroons determination to depart him out for Adelaide had not performed on his thoughts within the match, nor did it affect his transfer from five-eighth to fullback.
However he’s effectively conscious the one solution to get again into the Queensland facet is to string matches collectively with out concussion scares.
“I simply should play video games, I can’t fear about (choice),” Ponga stated.
“I’m lucky that immediately I had a pair and clearly no impact. I felt tremendous. It’s a part of footy and part of my recreation. I can’t fear about them.
“I can’t go into video games nervous about that. I simply want to maneuver on and do my position and play good footy.”
Ponga stated he was upset by Slater’s determination to depart him out of Sport I after he starred in final 12 months’s decider, however he “accepted and revered” his non-selection.
After throwing an early intercept move and kicking a dropout that did not go 10 metres that helped ship Manly out to an 8-0 lead, Ponga bounced again into the sport at McDonald Jones Stadium.
He busted 4 tackles, offered a number of half breaks and put hat-trick hero Greg Marzhew over untouched after a Lachlan Fitzgibbon offload to degree the scores at 14-14 after Newcastle trailed 14-10 on the break.
“I most likely felt I used my eyes much more on the again,” Ponga stated.
“Being at fullback, having the ability to see each side of the rucks. I felt freer in that sense.”
Dane Gagai additionally had a number of sturdy runs within the win after being dropped by the Knights, whereas Daniel Saifiti was one in every of their greatest forwards after being neglected by New South Wales.
The Knights squandered a number of probabilities within the first half, and allowed Manly again into the sport at 18-18 with 18 minutes to go when Jackson Hastings provided up an intercept move for Jason Saab.
However when Tolutau Koula was sin-binned for a excessive hit on Ponga with quarter-hour to go, the Knights had been in a position to take cost in opposition to a Sea Eagles outfit lacking Daly Cherry-Evans, Tom Trbojevic and his brother Jake.
Knights hooker Phoenix Crossland scored beneath the posts after a scrappy play with Koula off to place Newcastle again within the lead, whereas a length-of-the-field effort from Dom Younger sealed the sport.
Manly was gutsy given the gamers it was lacking, and scrambled effectively to avoid wasting a number of tries earlier than the time with out Koula cruelled the Sea Eagles.
“I didn’t assume it was a sin-bin,” Seibold stated.
“It was a harsh name, however that’s not why we misplaced the sport.
“I used to be tremendous pleased with the fellows immediately. We had been courageous, actually courageous. We had 5 – 6 try-saving tackles.
“They saved turning up for one another out of place. It’s disappointing due to the trouble they put in.”
-AAP