‘I couldn’t believe it’: Newcastle playmaker Kalyn Ponga fires up over HIA call in loss to Warriors

At Sky Stadium, Wellington: Warriors 20 (Ed Kosi 25 min, Bunty Afoa 29 min, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 51 min, Wayde Egan 71 min tries; Shaun Johnson 2 goals) Knights 12 (Lachlan Fitzgibbon 1 min, Hymel Hunt 45 min tries; Jackson Hastings 2 goals). HT: 10-6

The Knights have fired up over the forced HIA removal of their star playmaker Kayln Ponga at a crucial juncture of their tense opening round loss to the Warriors in Wellington.

With 11 minutes left to play and the home side holding a slender 14-12 lead at Sky Stadium, Ponga was controversially ordered off the field by the independent doctor after colliding with Warriors prop Addin Folau-Blake.

Moments earlier, the 24-year-old had been denied a sensational try after last-ditch tackle from Warriors fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad.

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Ponga had been a threat throughout to the Warriors defence after switching from his usual position of fullback to five-eighth and his abrupt exit allowed the Kiwi side to close out the game, scoring a fourth try through Wayde Egan to claim a 20-12 victory and open their campaign in style.

Speaking in the post-match press conference alongside Knights coach Adam O’Brien, Ponga said he was baffled by the decision as he felt “literally fine”.

“It will be interesting to see their take on it. I’ve been knocked out before, I definitely wasn’t in any state,” Ponga, who suffered three concussions in six weeks last season, said of the decision to pull him from the match as a precaution.

“I couldn’t believe it, 10 minutes to go, game on the line, I’m literally fine. I think there’s an assessment that usually happens but I got taken off by an independent doctor.

“It caught me by surprise. I said to the ref, ‘I’m not going off’ but it’s not his call, it’s someone in a box.”

O’Brien shared Ponga’s frustration after his Newcastle side came away empty-handed in a topsy-turvy game where they held the lead early in both halves.

“I’m in no place to answer it because I’ve got no idea who, why, how and I don’t think he does,” O’Brien said when pressed on the controversial call, turning to Ponga sitting on his right.

“Wherever the bunker is, whether it’s in Sydney or wherever, [they] bumped it to a Category Two, which meant that he had to come straight off the field and couldn’t do an assessment out on the field,” O’Brien explained of the NRL’s concussion protocols.

“He’s worked really hard to get himself back in the game and now we are jumping at shadows to get him out of there. I don’t get it.”

Ponga said he couldn’t understand why a club doctor couldn’t complete a HIA on the field, particularly with the game on a knife edge and the Knights in the ascendancy.

“There’s usually an assessment sometimes on the field, where they check your balance and stuff like that. But that wasn’t the case, because it was an independent doctor in a box somewhere, I had to come straight off.”

Ponga – who was born in Australia to New Zealand parents – has in the past expressed a desire to switch codes and represent the All Blacks.

But that switch is unlikely to come until 2028 at the earliest after he signed a new five-year, A$5 million deal with the Knights last year through to the end of the 2027 NRL season.

Despite their defeat to the Warriors, O’Brien took plenty of positives from the game and said he was delighted with the character shown by his team.

“I was really proud of the effort defensively, we had to overcome some stuff tonight,” O’Brien said. “We lost Friz [Tyson Frizell] early, Phoenix [Crossland] got put in the bin. We defended with 12 men. I thought we were great defending there.

“Kurt [Mann] gets taken off the back of the dead ball line, and we’re down to 12 again, and then they take him [Ponga] off. So we had a bit to get through.

“Like I said, we’ll get better. The attack will naturally get better. I think there were four or five opportunities where we got held up across the line and bombed a couple of close ones.

“So not far away, but naturally the more time that these boys spend together, they are going to get better.”

The Knights back up against the Wests Tigers in Sydney next Sunday, while the Warriors travel across the ditch to face the Roosters the day before.