Newcastle Knights thump Gold Coast Titans 46-16 in NRL round 16

NEWCASTLE winger James McManus sent a four-try message to NSW Blues coach Laurie Daley as the Knights thrashed Gold Coast 46-16.

NEWCASTLE winger James McManus sent a four-try message to NSW Blues coach Laurie Daley yesterday as the Knights thrashed Gold Coast 46-16.

Match centre: Game details and stats

Live coverage: How we covered the match

Gallery: Best action snaps

McManus, whose record-equalling haul took him to the top of the try-scorers' list with 15, could not have done any more to push his claims for an Origin call-up should Jarryd Hayne be ruled out through injury.

The sixth Knights player alongside Andrew Johns, Adam MacDougall, Darren Albert, Cooper Vuna and Akuila Uate to score four tries in a game, McManus is realistic about his hopes.

"I think they are pretty set on blokes they want to pick," he said.

It wasn't just Newcastle's execution in attack and the first half try blitz that produced 36 points at better than a point a minute yesterday.

Or the deadly left boot of Jarrod Mullen, which strangled the life out of the Gold Coast Titans.

What will have rival teams ahead of the Knights on the competition ladder nervously looking over their shoulder after the way Newcastle dismantled the Titans was the brutality of their defence.

You could make a strong argument the Gold Coast did not turn up to play.

That would explain the 36-0 halftime scoreline. But it wouldn't give due credit to the way the Knights reduced the Titans to a bumbling rabble in the opening 40 minutes with their aggression when they didn't have the football.

McManus rightly got plenty of accolades for his performance. So too Mullen, who is in a real purple patch of form right now and halfback Tyrone Roberts, who has responded just the way coach Wayne Bennett would have wanted him to after the club signed Craig Gower.

But it was backrowers Jeremy Smith and Beau Scott who really set the standard that could yet turn the Knights into a premiership force with the ferocity of their defence.

There was one memorable tackle early in the game on hooker Matt Srama among a host of others and the rest of the Knights pack simply fed off it.

It got to the stage where the Titans were getting that bashed around, they struggled to get through any sets in the first half without coming up with an error.

Bennett had little doubt defence was instrumental in Sunday's points avalanche.

"I thought that's what won us the game,"he said.

"That's what gave us the points. His (Mullen's) wonderful kicking game and their back up of that by their great chase and their aggression in defence.

"In the end, they just couldn't breathe the Titans and the pressure kept building on them."

It was a performance Bennett didn't see coming, particularly as persistent rain had left the Hunter Stadium surface water-logged.

"I didn't know what to expect today with the conditions the way they were and it kind of blew me away a little bit to think they could score that many points," Bennett said.

Without Nate Myles and Dave Taylor going into the game, the Titans lost giant centre Jamal Idris to a suspected broken leg after just five minutes and his absence on the right edge proved telling.

The first time the Knights went there, Roberts scored a soft try so the Knights kept going back to the well will devastating effect.

By the 30-minute mark, it was 36-0 with McManus scoring a treble and Joey Leilua and Darius Boyd (penalty try) posting four pointers.

Poor Titans winger Anthony Don endured a nightmare 40 minutes he won't want to ever relive.

Titans coach Johns Cartwright was making no excuses for his side despite the Idris injury, which could see him sidelined for up to four months.

"It was out of the blue, I didn't see it coming," he said.

"We didn't do enough to stop Newcastle but I have to compliment Newcastle on their execution in that 25 minute period.

"They spotted a weakness and they attacked it and they did it perfectly.

"We looked a little bit loose right from the start and losing Jamal probably added to it."

At 42-0 after McManus crossed for his fourth try two minutes into the second half, a cricket score looked on the cards.

But as so often happens, the team with the ascendancy takes the foot off the pedal and with Bennett swinging the changes and playing some players out of position, the Titans were about to stem the tide and finish with three tries of their own.

McManus sung the praises of his forward pack after his record-equalling four-try haul.

"Our forwards set the platform with their defence,"he said.

"Their line speed was brutal at times and to score 40 odd points in those conditions was good going for us."

NEWCASTLE 46 (1 penalty try) (J McManus 4 D Boyd J Leilua J Mullen T Roberts tries T Roberts 7 goals) bt GOLD COAST 16 (G Bird K Gordon D Mead tries A Sezer 2 goals) at Hunter Stadium. Referee: Shayne Hayne, Jason Robinson. Crowd: 9,208.