Wests Tigers 20 Newcastle Knights 12
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Blues Origin hopeful Trent Hodkinson felt it was one of his best showings for the Knights, but his coach Nathan Brown pointed out how hard it is for the ace No.7 to show his world-class best playing in a side anchored to the foot of the table.
The NSW team for Origin I will be announced on Monday and Hodkinson's effort in his return for Newcastle after a week on the sideline firmly puts the ball back in coach Laurie Daley's court with Adam Reynolds and Mitchell Pearce in the mix to fill the critical halfback position.
"I felt a lot better today, having the week off, I was nice and refreshed," Hodkinson said after Wests Tigers squeaked home 20-12 over Newcastle at Campbelltown.
"I felt as though it was probably one of my better games for the Knights."
As for his chances of being picked for NSW, he said: "It is what it is. It's up to the selectors."
But Brown suggested Hodkinson's performance should come with an asterisk, in that shining for a struggling side is never easy.
“Trent's playing in a team that's got a lot of young kids in it, that's very inexperienced," said Brown, whose favourite performers on the day were young front rowers, Daniel Saifiti - who ran a game-high 237 metres - and Josh King, who can hardly train because he's doing an apprenticeship.
"It would be far easier playing for NSW than playing for Newcastle at the minute because of the situation we're in."
That situation got a little better on Saturday, even if there were no competition points to show for it. After being smashed 62-0 last week by the Sharks, the Knights showed plenty of enthusiasm to give the Tigers an almighty fright before finally succumbing three-tries-to-two in front of 8658 fans.
Newcastle were up 12-10 inside the final 18 minutes, but two late tries to the Tigers ensured Jason Taylor's men a scratchy win.
"We got the job done, so we're happy with it," Taylor said. "We've got more in us, we could be better and that's what we're striving for."
Taylor praised young lock Elijah Taylor for his effort filling in at hooker with Robbie Farah out injured, Tigers debutant Matt Ballin out concussed and Dean Halatau needing support. He also liked the effort of halves pairing Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses.
"[Newcastle] came out in the second half and were on top of us, and Mitch kicked us out of that trouble," Taylor said.
"Then, late in the game, Brooksy came up with some really nice touches and his try was great.
"The most pleasing thing was the calmness that we showed late in the game to win the game. There was a period where we lost our way a bit and got frantic. But to come back like we did and get the points we needed to win the game was great.
"There were a lot of positives there, but we've still got a long way to go to get where we want to be."
