THE Knights secured their second NRL finals berth in three seasons with a nerve-jangling 40-24 victory over South Sydney at a sold-out Ausgrid Stadium last night.
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Barring a series of unlikely results tomorrow, Newcastle will play Melbourne at AAMI Park tomorrow week in a sudden-death qualifying final.
The near-capacity crowd of 30,729 was the biggest since the new western grandstand was opened earlier this year, the most to watch a Knights home game since a ground-record crowd of 32,642 packed in to watch them play Manly in 1995, and the third highest in the club’s 24-year history.
Apart from the record figure for the Manly game in 1995, the only other time more people have attended a game at Newcastle’s showpiece stadium was when 32,217 crammed in to watch the Knights beat Balmain in the final round of the 1990 regular season to force a midweek play-off with the Tigers.
The Knights scored five first-half tries to one to lead 30-6 at half-time but, unlike their second-half surrender against the Bulldogs last Saturday and some nervous moments in the final 10 minutes, they were able to stave off a late Rabbitohs rally to live to fight another day.
Crowd favourite Aku Uate equalled a Knights record by scoring four tries, taking his season tally to 19.
In his last home game for the Knights, retiring veteran Adam MacDougall set up Uate’s first two tries and converted the last one after the final siren.
Uate joined MacDougall, Andrew Johns, Darren Albert and Cooper Vuna as the fifth player in the club’s history to score four tries in a game.
Souths faced the same scenario as the Knights last night, needing to win to eliminate Newcastle and make the finals, but started poorly and never recovered in time.
Spurred on by the capacity crowd, the Knights burst out of the blocks with three converted tries in the first 15 minutes to take a commanding 18-0 lead.
Hooker Isaac De Gois darted out of dummy-half after Adam MacDougall’s quick play-the-ball to score next to the posts in the seventh minute.
Souths winger Fetuli Talanoa lost the ball in a tackle four minutes later, handing back possession to the Knights, and at the end of the set halfback Jarrod Mullen handed off for prop Antonio Kaufusi to reach out and score.
Pivot John Sutton, who played with his broken right hand heavily strapped, made another handling error in the 14th minute and the Knights extended their lead to 18-0 one minute later when captain Kurt Gidley and Mullen combined on the fringe of the ruck to send back-rower Chris Houston away to score under the posts.
Souths posted their first points in the 19th minute when centre Shaune Corrigan touched down.
Chris Sandow converted from out wide to trim the deficit to 18-6, but it was the diminutive halfback’s first significant involvement after he injured his right arm just three minutes into the game.
Souths looked certain to cut the margin to eight points in the 24th minute when Nathan Merritt burst into the clear from an Issac Luke pass, but Gidley’s desperate tackle knocked Merritt to the ground and the NRL’s leading try scorer went into touch as he tried to crawl over the line.
MacDougall held up the Souths defence in the 27th minute and flicked a pass to Uate to race away and score, then they combined again in the 35th minute after MacDougall swooped on a stray Souths pass and sent Uate on a 40-metre scoot to score his second try.
Leading 30-6 at half-time, and haunted by the fact they had not scored a second-half point in their previous three games, the Knights breathed a sigh of relief when Uate scrambled over to score his third try in the 50th minute to stretch their lead to 34-6.
The Knights needed every bit of it too as the Rabbitohs rallied with three converted tries, two by Merritt and one by Chris McQueen, in a 17-minute spell to pull within 34-24 with seven minutes remaining.
But in the final 15 seconds, Uate picked up a Souths grubber kick and ran 95metres to score his fourth try.
Gidley stepped aside to gave MacDougall the conversion from in front of the posts, and the retiring 36-year-old international delighted the crowd and himself by toe-poking the first goal of his 16-year career.
