Newcastle finally proved there was life after Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus as the Knights shook the monkey from their back with a scrappy 16-12 NRL win over a gallant St George Illawarra at Oki Jubilee Stadium.

The Knights scored two tries in the final 12 minutes to overcome a Dragons side littered with rookies, the visitors scoring four tries to two with the margin kept narrow by some poor goalkicking by Kurt Gidley and Daniel Abraham.

It was about the only thing Gidley did poorly as the Knights won for the first time in 12 matches without both Johns (injury) and Buderus (suspension), the Knights a perfect two-from-two without their two superstars.

"We could well be sitting here with no points at all, so to have four points and not have played as well as we can yet (is good)," Knights coach Brian Smith said.

"I hope we improve as much as they will. They'll play better than that and we need to find that as well."

The Dragons, with seven players having a combined total of six first-grade games experience between them after the pre-game withdrawal of Matt Cooper (calf) and Adam Peek (shoulder), fought to the end and looked likely to steal a win when young centre Keith Lulia scored a long-range try to open up a 12-8 second half lead.

Having debuted four players last week, the Dragons debuted another two against the Knights - Lagi Setu and Chase Stanley the latest to get a taste of the top grade.

It was a remarkable day for 17-year-old Stanley, who had already completed a day of classes at Endeavour High before arriving at the ground, where he scored with his first touch of the ball as the Dragons went into the break 8-6 down.

But a plethora of errors by the home side let the Knights back into the match with centres Brad Tighe and George Carmont scoring in the final 12 minutes, Dragons coach Nathan Brown lamenting a couple of poor options in both halves.

"There was a chance there to win and we didn't take our chances," Brown said.

"To Newcastle's credit they took their chance and they were just too good on the night.

"The effort was great, we improve some things there's no reason why we can't win some games."

Having already gone into the game light on experience, the Dragons suffered a huge blow early with one of their few old heads, 234-game veteran Simon Woolford, suffering a match-ending ankle injury in just the fourth minute.

An early Dragons penalty goal was soon cancelled out when Jarrod Mullen threw a short ball to send Clint Newton over, the Knights then shooting themselves in the foot with back-to-back penalties while in possession to allow Hornby to grubber for Stanley's moment of glory.

Referee Steve Clark continued to put his sizeable imprint on the game with penalties punctuating the next passage of play, opposing backrowers Corey Payne and Daniel Tolar both likely to come under scrutiny from the match review committee for high tackles.

The Dragons looked like taking their slender lead to the break until a professional foul by Wes Naiqama earned the Fijian centre a spell in the sin bin, the Knights taking advantage of the one-man over lap with James McManus going over out wide.

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