KINGHTS vs RHODE ISLAND
Knights quell the Rebellion
The Knights bounced back from last week’s close loss to Philadelphia with a 56-16 win over the Rhode Island Rebellion. Despite the 40 point winning margin it was a stop start performance from the Conference leaders against the bottom side.
FIRST HALF
The Knights had been slow out of the stall in the previous week so were keen to get of to a quick start. They were awarded a scrum 15 metres out from the Rhode Island line and CJ Cortalano sent the ball out to Chad Sharp who found Alex Foster running a perfectly time arced line to split the defense wide open and score the games first try after three minutes. Sharp added the conversion to his assist to make it 6-0.
Four minutes later the score was doubled after a strong set ended with Chad popping to brother Matt Sharp who span before contact to leave the defenders flat footed and score. Chad added the extras to make it 12-0
With ten minutes on the clock the Knights had their third try. A quick attacking set saw the ball spread wide to Jovanny Perez who he fed Randy Porter out on the wing, with Porter stepping inside the on rushing defender to score and make it 16-0
Five minutes later the Knights added a fourth try. Attacking from deep they made quick ground and Chad Sharp spotted a gap in the Rebellion line and sprinted through untouched to score from 35 metres out. He followed this up with a smashing conversion to make it 22-0.
At the start of the 2nd quarter Rhode Island capitalized on some sloppy sets from the Knights to work there way over for a converted try from 15 metres out to close the gap to 22-6.
The half hour mark saw the gap back to 22 points following another counter from deep. Foster made a break from just inside his own half before passing on his outside to Ryan Owens who used his gas to sprint away from the full back and score under the posts. Sharp converted to make it 28-6
The Knights would add two more tries before half time to seal the win. The first one was from a penalty given 10 metres out. Cortalano took the quick tap and Jesse Platz on his return from injury bowled over the Rebellion defense to score. Sharp converted to make it 34-6
With a minute on the clock left Rhode Island were turned over on their own attacking set and the ball found Porter open on the wing 30 metres out and he left the defense for dead as he sprinted to the line for his second try.
SECOND HALF
After a fluid first half the last forty minutes saw a number of unforced errors and sloppy defending from the Knights. They were punished five minutes into the 2nd half when Rhode Island scored their 2nd converted try to make it 40-12.
Three minutes later both sides traded a number of dropped passes in the Rebellion half before the Knights had a scrum 10 metres out. The ball was fed to Chad Sharp at first receiver and he fooled the defense with a show and go dummy to cruise in untouched. He converted his try to make it 46-12
The last quarter saw more errors from both sides and saw three more tries scored. Rhode Island grabbed their final score following a strong hit up set saw them in for an unconverted try to make the score 46-16.
With five minutes left Matt Sharp joined brother Chad on 2 tries with a show and go dummy try of his own off first phase scrum ball from 10 metres out. Again the defense didn’t read the play and Sharp scored a well deserved try. Chad added the simple conversion to break the half century mark and make it 52-16.
The final set of the game saw the final try. The New York pack drove the ball forward before the ball was given to Josh Rice who showed a great turn of pace to attack the gap and score out wide from 30 metres to make the final score 56-16.
TRIES: Alex Foster, Matt Sharp (2), Randy Porter (2), Chad Sharp (2), Ryan Owens, Jesse Platz, Joshua Rice
CONVERSIONS: Chad Sharp 8/10
MOTM: Juilio
