Knights vs Warriors NRL round 6 betting guide & best bets | 9/4

Sunday afternoon NRL wraps up in Newcastle with the Knights hosting the New Zealand Warriors at McDonald Jones Stadium. Both these sides put in unbelievable performances last week against the Sea Eagles and Sharks respectively, but only one of them can win on Sunday.

The Newcastle Knights have been forced to make one change to their side with Phoenix Crossland replacing Tyson Gamble who suffered a concussion against the Sea Eagles.

The Warriors have also been forced into a change after Marata Niukore was suspended again for dangerous contact on Siosifa Talakai. Bayley Sironen will start in the back row for the visitors with Tohu Harris named to start in the lock position.

These two sides have met on 45 occasions with the New Zealand Warriors winning 23 of their matches. So far this season, the Knights have made more tackles, missed more tackles, conceded more line breaks & tries with much poorer discipline than their visitors. The Warriors have been arguably the best feel-good story of the season as they currently sit third on the NRL ladder with just one loss to their name. Under new head coach Andrew Webster, the Warriors have played with incredible determination and discipline which will make winning on the road in Newcastle much easier. The Warriors should be able to cover the -1.5 point line at $1.90 odds with the top bookmakers.

So far this season the Knights have conceded a majority of their tries in their right hand corner, the edge Dominic Young defends and Marcelo Montoya attacks. In all five matches so far this season Montoya has scored three tries with five line breaks and 14 tackle breaks. Although Montoya is prone to the odd error, Young is equally prone. The Warriors have done an incredible job of setting up attacking plays that commit wing defenders to come in off their sideline, creating the space for Montoya to score in the corner. This will certainly be the plan of the Warriors which should see Montoya score at any time during the match ($1.71).

The Knights are down to their third-string five-eighth in Crossland on Sunday, and despite the amazing performances of Greg Marzhew and Young, points will be hard to come by. Similarly for the Warriors, their wet-weather win over the Sharks in Cronulla last week could take a real toll on the visiting side. It is hard to see this match exceeding 42.5 total match points with both sides having various issues they need to overcome ($1.90).

Key matchup: Jackson Hastings v Shaun Johnson

Jackson Hastings vs Shaun Johnson

The battle between these two halfbacks will be the highlight of the evening, but not for the more obvious reasons. While Hastings is an incredible organiser of his side on the field, and Johnson’s attacking game has returned to some of his better days, these will not be the key aspects of their games on show. Last week, both halves kicked their sides out of trouble incredibly well, gaining over 600m each with the boot to give their sides an incredible advantage for where they would begin their sets defensively. On Sunday, it’s expected each side will have a half of football each with the wind at their backs. Whoever capitalises on that advantage better will go on to win this match.

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