Jersey Flegg Cup: Dragons fall in wild Newcastle conditions

A Dragons error on just the second play of the afternoon handed the hosts an early opportunity but Shane Millard’s men were able to withstand the early challenge.

Helped by a pair of late set restarts, the Knights nabbed first points through No.9 Taj Moore who burrowed his way over out of dummy-half to make it 6-0.

Sully Hoard claimed a try for the Knights shortly after off a pinpoint cross-field kick but was ruled to have been held up by some desperate Dragons cover.

A mid-field Kade Reed bomb produced a Knights error a quarter of the way in and the Red V went close to their first points off it through Eden Hodges only for the officials to observe a knock-on in the grounding attempt.

The visitors again threatened through hooker Kyan Hjaltason who darted into the backfield from dummy-half and fashioned a grubber for his support players only for Hoard to win the race to the football.

The Dragons were penalised prior to half-time handing Knights fullback Cullen Gray an opportunity to knock over a gift two points and extend their lead beyond a converted try.

Hulking prop Bailey Carmichael nabbed a try for Newcastle on the stroke of half-time through sheer determination to stretch their advantage out to 14.

The Dragons needed to find a way to be the first to score in the second forty and they managed to do so off the back of a wave of possession with Eden Hodges powering his way over off a short Tyler Peckham-Harris delivery to cut the deficit back to 10.

The weather took a turn for the worse an hour in with a hailstorm descending upon Newcastle as the Dragons continued their fightback attempt with officials making the decision to suspend play for a half-hour.

Bailey Winter went over to push the Knights further ahead an hour in as the weather had cleared up a fraction.

Reed sent a perfect cut-out the way of Toby Rumble who did well to complete an acrobatic dive in the right-hand corner to score and bring it back to 14-8 with less than a minute to play.

Knights halfback Taj Blackman was sin-binned for holding down a Dragon as time ticked away but the visitors’ late run proved unsuccessful as the Knights held on for a win in peculiar conditions.