New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Easter Bunny hasn\u2019t been kind to Newcastle in recent years, playing on the last seven Easter Sundays for just a singular victory, back in 2023. <\/p>\n
Canberra, on the other hand, had bigger worries than the Easter Bunny \u2013 a three-game losing streak, with last year\u2019s minor premiers yet to taste a victory in regulation time so far this season. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s getting into miracle areas. Last year\u2019s wooden spooners are into the top four,\u201d Andrew Voss said on Fox League.<\/p>\n
The start was no less turbulent for the Green Machine, rookie half Ethan Sanders sending his first kick out on the full less than 60 seconds into the clash. <\/p>\n
Still without their two marquee men in Dylan Brown and Kalyn Ponga, it would be the Knights that tested the waters early, Greg Marzhew streaking 60 metres downfield just four minutes into the contest. <\/p>\n
The pendulum swung back and forth for more than a quarter of an hour before the Raiders delivered the first blow of the afternoon, Ethan Strange splitting the defence near halfway, drawing fill-in fullback Fletcher Hunt to send Simi Sasagi under the posts. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a familiar feeling for the ex-Knight, crossing in his third straight game against his former side, to hand Canberra a 6-0 lead. <\/p>\n
Both teams would trade errors over the next ten minutes, a bad mid-air tackle from Greg Marzhew landed the winger on report, undone in the next set after Sanders put a grubber into row five to hand the Knights a seven-tackle set. <\/p>\n
Knights stun Raiders in Newcastle | 02:45<\/p>\n
It would take an element of luck to get the home side onto the scoreboard, a nothing bomb from Sandon Smith landed into the lap of Gagai and thrown backwards, only for Corey Horsburgh to fumble it and hand Newcastle a fresh set. <\/p>\n
It would take just two tackles for Smith to swing it left, cutting out Sharpe and finding Bradman Best, the hulking winger tapping it onto his winger for Marzhew to dot down in the corner. <\/p>\n
The momentum had well and truly swung back in Newcastle\u2019s favour, Xavier Savage and Kaeo Weekes leaving a bomb to bounce \u2013 straight into Fletcher Sharpe\u2019s lap for a 10-6 half-time lead. <\/p>\n
While a groin strain kept Bradman Best out of the second-half, it did hand Newcastle an opportunity to blood teenager Wilson De Courcey. The young centre is set to sign a two-year extension in the coming weeks with Dane Gagai\u2019s likely retirement at the end of the season. <\/p>\n
The half-time break wouldn\u2019t stop the rot for the visitors, Tamale dropping a bomb to put Newcastle back on attack before a professional foul from the winger on Dom Young landed the outside back in the sin-bin. <\/p>\n
The one-man overlap was all Newcastle needed to start delivering some hammer blows to the oppostion. <\/p>\n
Firstly a simple spread out to Young saw the Englishman dive over in the corner, exactly where Tamale would have been, to extend the lead out to 14-6. <\/p>\n
Another shift right, this time just beyond halfway, saw Gagai step off his right and breeze straight past Sanders and into open pastures before turning the ball back inside for Phoenix Crossland to notch his first four-pointer of the season. <\/p>\n
A Jayden Brailey knock-on in the play-the-ball halted any chance of Canberra regaining momentum, with Zac Hosking having a try overturned for obstruction two minutes later. <\/p>\n
A deft chip from Sharpe found Weekes badly out of position down the other end of the field, straight Marzhew\u2019s bread basket for a try double, and the final nail in Canberra\u2019s coffin at 26-6. <\/p>\n
‘Simplified our game plan’ Holbrook | 05:05<\/p>\n
The try would end Savage\u2019s afternoon in the same play, the winger carried off with an apparent lower leg injury after getting caught in the crossfire. <\/p>\n
Ethan Strange would nab a magical try courtesy of a short-kick off, Sasagi dacing through defenders before finding the No. 6 on his outside to narrow the scoreline back to 26-12. <\/p>\n
The Knights, however, would save their best for last on Easter Sunday as Fletcher Hunt pulled out the hops, catching a bomb and spinning past a rushing Hudson Young before dancing across Canberra\u2019s defence, sending Dom Young for a 50-metre untouched run down the sideline for a double of his own. <\/p>\n
The 32-12 loss leaves the Raiders in must-win territory ahead of next week\u2019s clash against South Sydney in Perth, while it hands Newcastle a chance to consolidate their top four spot against the Wests Tigers next Sunday. <\/p>\n
BIG HITS<\/p>\n
BECKONING BROWN CREATES SPINE CONUNDRUM<\/p>\n
Newcastle are set to welcome back their $13 million star recruit Dylan Brown as early as next week, but it begs the question for Justin Holbrook \u2013 who do you drop? <\/p>\n
Fletcher Hunt was tough as nails again at the back for Newcastle, running for nearly 200 metres, while Sandon Smith steered the ship for the Knights, his towering first-half leading to Sharpe\u2019s try. <\/p>\n
Especially with Fletcher Sharpe able to play fullback or five-eighth and skipper Kalyn Ponga still weeks away, it\u2019s a healthy headache for Holbrook heading into their Round 6 clash against the Tigers. <\/p>\n
SANDERS STRUGGLES AS RAIDERS TUMBLE <\/p>\n
It was a tough afternoon for young halfback Ethan Sanders, putting in a number of poor kicks as well as a bad miss on Dane Gagai in the second-half leading straight to a Newcastle four-pointer. <\/p>\n
It leaves the Raiders in a tough spot early this season, losing four straight games, and without a win in regulation time after five rounds. It\u2019s a far cry from their 2025 efforts, losing five games throughout the entire regular season. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s no doubt Sanders has a bright future in the NRL, but Sunday afternoon will be a tough lesson for the 22-year-old to stomach. <\/p>\n
HOODOO\u2019S SHATTERED FOR HARDENED KNIGHTS <\/p>\n
The Newcastle Knights didn\u2019t just secure their third win at home in the last 18 months on Sunday afternoon, they defied history to do so. <\/p>\n
The holy day has been a nightmarish one for Newcastle over the last decade, playing in seven Easter Sunday clashes between 2018 and 2025, and winning just once in that timespan. <\/p>\n
Not to mention the dreaded stat of Newcastle\u2019s mining jerseys, having won just nine times in 20 appearances in the hi-vis strip before their clash against Canberra. <\/p>\n
Buy a lottery ticket Newcastle fans, the tide seems to be turning in the Hunter. <\/p>\n
JUDICIARY WATCH<\/p>\n
Greg Marzhew placed on report for mid air tackle on Keao Weekes in the first half while Tyson Frizell was placed on report for dangerous low tackle on Joseph Tapine in the second half.<\/p>\n
STAT ATTACK<\/p>\n
– Newcastle snapped a seven-game losing streak in Newcastle.<\/p>\n
– Only the fifth time since 1998 Newcastle has won four or five of their first five games – first time since 2015 (finished last after winning first four games). <\/p>\n
– Only the Raiders fifth 1-4 start of the NRL Era. They have recovered to make the finals in two of the previous four occasions. <\/p>\n
– Worst start by a reigning minor Premier since the Roosters went 0-5 in 2016. <\/p>\n
– Raiders have lost seven of their last eight games, four of those losses by 20 points or more. <\/p>\n
– Knights second 30 plus scoreline this season – only did so once last year. <\/p>\n
– Greg Marzhew\u2019s try double is the ninth time he has scored two or more tries in a game. He now has 8 tries in 8 games against Canberra and averages over 190 run metres against them. <\/p>\n
– Fox Lab POTM was Dane Gagai. He wound back the clock with an inspirational performance. He had a hand in two tries, ran for 135 metres and busted 12 tackles.<\/p>\n
FOLLOW ALL THE ACTION IN THE LIVE BLOG BELOW! CAN\u2019T SEE IT? CLICK HERE!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Newcastle Knights have upset the Canberra Raiders on Easter, handing the Green Machine a fourth straight loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[18743,4426,64,63,4532,4607,4457,4424,11096,287221,4516,4594,15900,82652,4491,4485,72590,44183,6407,761,762,4495,4554,158,183052,4571,4595,85,4465,4522,4573,4545,287220,150366,4417],"class_list":{"0":"post-587237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-adam-reynolds","9":"tag-ata-mariota","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-canberra-raiders","13":"tag-chevy-stewart","14":"tag-corey-horsburgh","15":"tag-dane-gagai","16":"tag-daniel-nuttall","17":"tag-dylan-lucas-fletcher-sharpe","18":"tag-ethan-sanders","19":"tag-fletcher-hunt","20":"tag-harrison-graham","21":"tag-hudson-young","22":"tag-jermaine-mcewen","23":"tag-joseph-tapine","24":"tag-justin-holbrook","25":"tag-knights-v","26":"tag-michael-maguire","27":"tag-national-rugby-league","28":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","29":"tag-newcastle-knights","30":"tag-noah-martin","31":"tag-nrl","32":"tag-promising-start","33":"tag-sandon-smith","34":"tag-sebastian-kris","35":"tag-sports","36":"tag-thomas-cant","37":"tag-tom-starling","38":"tag-tyson-frizell","39":"tag-tyson-gamble","40":"tag-wash-reynolds","41":"tag-wilson-de-courcey","42":"tag-zac-hosking"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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