League: Sorry Dragons feel the full force of Johns' return

Knights 54 Dragons 6
Roosters 28 Sharks 26
Broncos 30 Rabbitohs 12

The Warriors know when to play the Knights, don't they? This week, with Andrew Johns restored to the Knights line-up, they gave the Dragons the mother and father of a hiding by 54-6.

It was one of those games where you can honestly say the Dragons were lucky to get six and they suffered one of their biggest losses in their history (61-0 to Manly remains their record defeat) with the Knights turning on the razzle-dazzle after winger Brian Carney broke the St George defence in the 27th minute.

After that, it was a try-fest, with nine more Knights tries scored in the next 43 minutes before the Dragons scored a consolation. This truly was a scenario where the Knights slaughtered the Dragons.

At the heart of matters was Johns. In doubt all week with a neck injury which kept him out of last week's loss to the Warriors, he showed little sign of discomfort on his way to a personal haul of 22 points as the Knights strolled to their biggest win over the Dragons.

It took him past former Kiwi Daryl Halligan and into second place on the all-time point scorers list with 2036 career points, and he now trails only Jason Taylor, who sits atop the pile on 2107 points.

The Johns show truly clicked into gear when he put up a bomb which Dragons winger Colin Best made a mess of to gift George Carmont a try, while a 40-20 set up an opportunity which livewire fullback Milton Thaiday gratefully accepted when he strolled over under the posts. Johns completed the rout when he backed up a fine break by Carney down the touchline to make it 24-0 at the break.

The Knights showed they weren't about to give the Dragons a sniff when Daniel Tolar delivered a clever pass in traffic to put Riley Brown over, while the home side's night was summed up when Ben Creagh was denied a try for a double movement minutes later.

There was no let up by the Knights as Carmont completed his double and Kurt Gidley, Danny Buderus and Anthony Quinn crossed for four-pointers.

Meanwhile the Roosters won a thriller 28-26 against the Sharks - but lost Ryan Cross to a bad injury, while Russell Crowe's Rabbitohs slumped to a poor 30-12 defeat at the hands of the Broncos in an error-strewn match.

Knights 54 (G. Carmont 2, R. Brown, D. Buderus, B. Carney, K. Gidley, A. Johns, A. Quinn, M. Thaiday tries; Johns 9 goals).

Dragons 6 (C. Best try; A. Gorrell goal).