South Sydney coach Jason Taylor admits his NRL side has dodged a bullet against Newcastle.

But after a couple of near misses this season, Taylor claimed the Bunnies were due.

The Rabbitohs ended a 13-year hoodoo in Newcastle by scoring three late tries to claim a come-from-behind 28-25 victory at a cold and windy EnergyAustralia Stadium.

"If you've been watching our games this year, you know we've had a lot of teams dodge bullets against us, so we just move on," Taylor said after the win which sees the Rabbitohs sit, temporarily at least, inside the top eight.

"In the end to get the two points was great because we certainly did it the tough way.

"There were points in the game where I was enormously disappointed and I thought there was no doubt this was the worst performance of the season.

"The 20 minutes before halftime and 20 minutes after halftime, we were as poor as we've been this year.

"There's some real lessons in the game for us, the exciting bit about it though is we get the win, and learn those lessons after a win and not a loss."

After scoring five unanswered tries, the Knights, despite missing their three NSW Origin stars, looked like cruising to victory leading 24-12 midway through the second half.

But a 60m intercept try to Souths halfback Jeremy Smith in the 64th minute - thrown by Jarrod Mullen - turned the match.

Skipper Roy Asotasi scored his second try of the night - and third in two games - soon after to level the game at 24-24.

Newcastle rookie half Luke Walsh slotted a 73rd minute field goal, but it was the Rabbitohs who landed the killer blow with five-eighth Ben Rogers' scoring the match-winning try less than four minutes from fulltime.

It capped an entertaining game which saw Knights winger Adam MacDougall score against his former club and then deliver a cheeky post-try celebration in response to his fallout last year with Bunnies co-owner Russell Crowe.

Knights coach Brian Smith was left to lament his side's inexperience in a loss which could see the club plummet to as low as 13th by the end of the weekend.

"I'm furious and exhilarated," said Smith.

"I thought we did enough to win the game, and it was on the back of some big calls and some errors that reek of inexperience that led to a loss.

"That's two games in a row (28-22 loss against Gold Coast last week) we could have easily won, and I think we were the better team in both games - particularly the way we were 12-0 down tonight after no time."

Smith was full of praise for the performance of MacDougall in his first game against Souths since his acrimonious split last season.

The former Test winger celebrated his 100th game for Newcastle with the team's opening try in the 28th minute.

He was denied a second by the video referee midway through the second half, but then moments later sent winger James McManus over for what seemed to be the match-sealer in the 56th.

His most memorable moment, however, perhaps came after his first-half touchdown.

MacDougall pretending to push buttons on the football as if it was a phone, and then tossed the ball gently at the head of teammate Cooper Vuna - mimicking Hollywood star Crowe's infamous 2005 mobile phone throwing incident in a New York hotel.

MacDougall, though, remained coy about the celebrations' meaning.

"Leave it to the imagination ... it's an artistic expression, any way you want to interpret it," MacDougall said, adding he had planned the celebration while joking around with former Knights star and television commentator Matthew Johns earlier in the day.

Souths fullback David Peachey was placed on a report for a high shot on McManus in the 32nd minute.

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