South Sydney bounced back from a last-round loss and proved their depth with a 25-18 NRL win over Newcastle.
Five days after their defeat to Cronulla and having lost Greg Inglis, Ben Te'o and Chris McQueen to State of Origin and Sam Burgess to suspension, the Rabbitohs started slowly in greasy conditions with light rain falling throughout the ANZ Stadium clash on Saturday night.
Conceding a 12-0 deficit after 17 minutes, Souths were shocked into action and scored four converted tries to seal a win that maintains their place at the top of the table.
With the scores level at 12-12 at halftime, Souths interchange forward George Burgess broke the deadlock in the 54th minute with a devastating run that has become his trademark in his debut NRL season.
Collecting the ball 25m out from the tryline, Burgess brushed off five defenders on his way to his fifth try of the season as his big brother Sam celebrated in the coaches' box.
Another four-pointer to centre Dylan Walker 10 minutes later and a massive 45m field goal from Adam Reynolds either side of Knights winger James McManus's try steered the Rabbitohs home.
It was only the 10th time the Rabbitohs have beaten Newcastle in 35 attempts and continues the Knights' miserable record of one away win for 2013.
A try and two conversions from Knights winger Josh Mantellato, a 26-year-old Italian international on his NRL debut, had helped Newcastle to an early 12-0 advantage.
The Central Coast-based personal trainer dived over in the corner after taking a flat pass from winger Kevin Naiqama in the 16th minute.
That effort came after Knights five-eighth Jarrod Mullen kicked a 40/20 the set following Alex McKinnon's opening try three minutes earlier.
NSW discard John Sutton then charged over from 10m out in the 27th minute and centre Beau Champion crossed after a strong right-edge burst.
McKinnon left the field on a stretcher late in the first half with a suspected broken leg in the same tackle that left him bloodied from a head clash with Souths interchange forward Josh Starling.
Knights coach Wayne Bennett was filthy with the first-half penalty count of 7-1 in favour of the Rabbitohs.
"It was the difference at the end of the night," said Bennett.
"We were pretty dominant in the first half until they started getting the penalties and got them back in the game.
"It's ridiculous to think we can only get one and the other team can get seven and we're both trying to emulate what everyone else in the competition is doing."
Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire was proud of his troops given the number of changes to the match-day 17 and the way they dug in after a sluggish start.
"Some games are ugly," he said.
"Newcastle completed very highly in that first half and turned it into an arm-wrestle and I was just pleased to see our boys climb out of that and get the points."
In the only sour note for Souths, Champion suffered a suspected broken leg and will require scans.
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