{"id":329974,"date":"2023-09-10T10:27:12","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T10:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=329974"},"modified":"2023-09-10T14:00:55","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T14:00:55","slug":"knights-finals-campaign-rattled-by-injury-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=329974","title":{"rendered":"Knights' finals campaign rattled by injury blow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Knights<\/a> could be without Jackson Hastings<\/a> for their do-or-die final against the Warriors after their go-to halfback failed to take part in the second half of Sunday's clash with the Raiders.<\/p>\n

In Newcastle on Sunday, Hastings returned from a \ufeffthree-match stint on the sideline due to a syndesmosis injury, but the rugby league journeyman was ruled out of the game at half-time after reaggravating his ankle issue.<\/p>\n

The Knights won their first finals match since 2013 in front of an electric sell-out crowd, defeating the Raiders 30-28 in an extra-time heartstopper<\/a>, but Hastings might not be fit to play as Newcastle shoots for a preliminary final berth in Auckland on Saturday.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Ponga's contentious moment seals extra-time thriller\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Biting allegation stings Wighton in thrilling final\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Adesanya stunned by American in all-time UFC upset<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"Obviously it doesn't look great," said Knights coach Adam O'Brien in his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

"I haven't had a chance to speak to the doctors yet.<\/p>\n

\"Jackson<\/p>\n

"We tested him at half-time and he wasn't going to be able to contribute in the second half. That in itself is not a great sign.<\/p>\n

"But anyway, we'll reassess tomorrow, pick ourselves up."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Kurt Mann\ufeff was shifted from the bench to the halves for the second half with the utility partnering Tyson Gamble.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Knights trailed 16-6 at the break, but Kalyn Ponga, Gamble and Mann combined superbly as the hosts erased the deficit and surged to a 28-16 lead by the 64th minute.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThey ran in four tries on the bounce, scoring through Ponga, Dominic Young twice and Dane Gagai.<\/p>\n

\"Knights<\/p>\n

"I want to heap praise on this guy," O'Brien said in his post-game press conference, gesturing to Ponga seated beside him.<\/p>\n

"When you lose Jackson and then Kalyn's all of a sudden got to reconfigure, he's got to coach Kurt on the run how to play five-eighth the way we want him to.<\/p>\n

"But then he's got to have the presence of mind to go, 'Well we've been heavily left-sided, I need to flip around to the right'. He did that, popped up on the right, we get two tries down there. That's pretty remarkable\ufeff for him to do.<\/p>\n

"It was literally a couple of minutes to go (before the start of the second half) when we ruled Jackson out.<\/p>\n

"To have the nous to go, 'Right, I need to start attacking down the right' \u2014 that's a credit to him. Outstanding."<\/p>\n

Adam Clune replaced Hastings at halfback for Newcastle's last three games of the regular season.<\/p>\n

If Hastings is ruled unavailable for the Warriors clash, \ufeffeither Clune will return to partner Gamble in the halves or Gamble and Mann will pair up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Knights could be without Jackson Hastings for their do-or-die final against the Warriors after their go-to halfback failed to take part in the second […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=329974"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329979,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329974\/revisions\/329979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/329976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=329974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=329974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=329974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}