The Newcastle Knights gatecrashed Stacey Jones' final appearance at Ericsson Stadium here tonight by winning the National Rugby League match against the New Zealand Warriors 16-4.
The match was Jones' final home game, before he heads to France to pursue his career, and like any good host he provided the
entertainment.
Unfortunately for Warriors' fans, after being dominated for 60 minutes, the Knights rattled on three tries in seven minutes to steal the win.
Jones, who leaves for French club UTC at the end of the season, tried his best to leave a winner in his 267th game for the Warriors only to have three tries disallowed by match officials.
Newcastle's burst started when five-eighth Brad Tighe ran 50m off an Andrew Johns bust to score and was quickly followed by tries to Kurt Gidley and Clint Newton in the 64th and 67th minutes respectively.
After the Warriors led 4-0 at halftime, Jones' run of bad luck started in the 55th minute when he broke through from close range and stretched out in the tackle to seemingly score under the crossbar only for referee Jason Robinson to rule he was held up.
Three minutes later Jones was denied again when video referee Steve Nash ruled interference after Jones bumped into second rower Awen Guttenbeil.
The halfback had the Warriors on the scoreboard in the 15th minute when wing Manu Vatuvei, after a burst down the right flank, caught a Jones bomb inside Newcastle's 20 to score out wide.
Centre Todd Byrne then pounced on a fumbled ball minutes later, with Jones scrambling to the tryline only to have the video referee rule that Byrne knocked on.
The remainder of the half saw free-flowing football from both sides, with desperate defence keeping the first-half points restricted to Vatuvei's try.
The video referee was called on in the 38th minute to disallow another Warriors try when loose forward Louis Anderson failed to ground the ball after regathering a Sione Faumuina bomb.
Tonight's win left the Knights on 18 points, but still in last place, with the Warriors on 20.
- NZPA
