{"id":340457,"date":"2026-03-21T08:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T08:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/340457\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T08:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T08:22:09","slug":"nrl-warriors-overrun-knights-on-barnetts-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/340457\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL: Warriors overrun Knights on Barnett’s return"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Leka<\/p>\n

\nLeka Halasima scores a try against Newcastle Knights.
\nPhoto: David Neilson\/Photosport\n<\/p>\n

For only the second time in club history, NZ Warriors have surged to a three-game winning streak to start their NRL season, overwhelming previously unbeaten Newcastle Knights 38-12 at McDonald Jones Stadium.<\/p>\n

The only previous occasion they have managed this feat was 2018, when the Auckland club rattled off five straight victories.<\/p>\n

Co-captain Mitch Barnett returned to action for the first time, since his season-ending knee injury last June and showed no rust, as he laid on a try for fellow front-rower Jackson Ford, who was celebrating his 100th first-grade game.<\/p>\n

Barnett’s appearance from the interchange was his 50th for the club.<\/p>\n

“It was nice to come off the bench for a change, when there was a bit of sting out of the game,” he said. “Great to be back.”<\/p>\n

Newcastle grabbed an early lead, when fullback Fletcher Hunt crossed for a try in the third minute, but the Warriors piled on 30 consecutive points to take control of the contest.<\/p>\n

The Knights finally answered through wing Greg Marzhew, but the visitors finished with a flourish, as wing Dallin Watene-Zelezniak fielded a desperation kick after the final siren and sent fullback Taine Tuaupiki into the clear.<\/p>\n

As he crossed the tryline, Tuaupiki flung a pass inside for debutant Luke Hanson to score, as Ford celebrated his milestone with the first goal of his career.<\/p>\n

The result puts the Warriors on top of the table on points differential over Penrith Panthers and they host Wests Tigers at Go Media Stadium next Friday.<\/p>\n

Follow the live action there:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leka Halasima scores a try against Newcastle Knights. Photo: David Neilson\/Photosport For only the second time in club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":["post-340457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}