Saturday’s NRL 2018 Round 16 match is between Newcastle Knights and Canterbury Bulldogs. The opening kick is set to commence at 17:30 local time with the game to be played at McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle. The home team Newcastle Knights are the favourites for the match.
View our preview and teams for the game between Newcastle Knights and Canterbury Bulldogs.
When: 17:30 | Saturday 30/06/2018
Where: McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle
Preview:
Kalyn Ponga’s rise has gone to another level after starring for Queensland.
We all expected him to play well but to play as good as he did in the middle third of the field was exceptional.
His defence was outstanding and he made close to 30 tackles as well as his potent attacking arsenal.
He will again be influential against a poor Bulldogs outfit who have now lost big off-season signing Kieran Foran for the year.
The club in nice terms is in a shamble.
Losing Moses Mbye to a mid-season trade will affect them.
They look in disarray and are unhappy and the performances we are witnessing certainly confirms that.
KEY BATTLE: Josh Jackson v Aidan Guerra
I’ll be really keen to see the matchup of the two captains.
Their performance will set the tone for their respective teams.
Both are very experienced players and know how much a win will be for the group.
The Verdict
With more on the line to play for, I feel the Knights will desperately want to stay in touch with the top 8.
I do expect the Dogs to show some pride and have a red-hot crack but think the reward is too much for the Knights and they will sneak home.
Newcastle has an 8-4 (66.7 percent) O/U record in games played during June since 2015.
Unibet Odds:
Newcastle at $1.58
Canterbury at $2.38
Odds:
Tip: Newcastle Knights at $1.71
Value Tip: First Try Scorer:Brett Morris at $12
More Info:
Teams:
Newcastle Knights:
1 Kalyn Ponga, 2 Ken Sio, 3 Sione Mata’utia, 4 Cory Denniss, 5 Shaun Kenny-Dowall, 6 Connor Watson, 7 Jack Cogger, 8 Herman Ese’ese, 9 Slade Griffin, 10 Josh King, 11 Sam Stone, 12 Mitchell Barnett, 13 Aidan Guerra (c)
Interchange: 14 Danny Levi, 15 Chris Heighington, 16 Luke Yates, 17 Jacob Lillyman
Reserves: 18 Jamie Buhrer (c), 19 Nathan Ross, 20 Brock Lamb, 21 Pasami Saulo, 22 Nicholas Meaney.
Canterbury Bulldogs: 
1 Will Hopoate, 2 Brett Morris, 3 Kerrod Holland, 4 Marcelo Montoya, 5 Reimis Smith, 6 Lachlan Lewis, 7 Jeremy Marshall-King, 8 Aiden Tolman, 9 Michael Lichaa, 10 David Klemmer, 11 Josh Jackson (c), 12 Rhyse Martin, 13 Adam Elliott
Interchange: 14 Fa’amanu Brown, 15 Danny Fualalo, 16 Ofahiki Ogden, 17 Greg Eastwood
Reserves: 19 Asipeli Fine, 20 Matt Frawley, 21 John Olive, 23 Clay Priest.
NRL News:
Newcastle won’t be tempted into rushing Mitchell Pearce back early from a pectoral injury after the representative round as they look to save their ailing NRL season.
Pearce hasn’t played for the Knights since going down injured in round seven, as the Knights have dropped six of eight games to fall from inside the top eight to 12th position.
Newcastle have Canterbury at home after the representative round followed by the bye, meaning Pearce will miss just one game between now and his return if he comes back in four weeks.
“He won’t be back for the Bulldogs game I wouldn’t have thought,” Brown said.
“We’re reasonably hopeful that after the bye he would be back.
“He’s coming along pretty good at the moment.”
The Knights could have dearly done with Pearce’s experience in Sunday’s loss to Melbourne after they fought back to 14-10 down shortly after halftime.
They completed at just 66 per cent – their lowest of the season – as Brown lamented too many players trying to come up with big plays at crucial stages that went astray.
“He (Pearce) is the kind of player we’ve missed for a lot of games this year,” Brown said.
“He was the last player we needed to get hurt, because all our other halves were inexperienced.
“We’re expecting Jack Cogger to be a main halfback and we’re expecting Kalyn Ponga to organise plays as a fullback.
“Whilst we’re expecting to challenge them to that, the realisation is those things will happen over time.
“It’s probably not fair on them in some ways, but for us to be in tight situations at 16-10 and for us to take the right option or kick the ball at the right time, it’s not always going to happen because Mitchell Pearce wouldn’t have done it when he was 19.”
