Wendell Sailor scored a first half double and couldn't help letting his old sparring partner Adam MacDougall know about it, but it was Mad Dog who had the last laugh as Newcastle came from behind to beat St George Illawarra on Saturday night.

The former State of Origin combatants reignited their decade-old rivalry with a war of words in the lead up to the clash, but it was MacDougall who raced away to score in the 64th minute to set up the Knights 24-18 victory.

Adding injury to insult, Sailor was forced from the field with a hamstring problem just nine minutes before MacDougall scored after a superb first-half performance.

Following his departure, Newcastle piled on three tries, with centre Junior Sau scoring on Sailor's wing just seconds later, before hooker Isaac de Gois and MacDougall erased the Knights' deficit to create a 24-14 lead.

The Dragons launched a late revival, with prop Jarrod Saffy crossing in the 70th minute to reduce the margin to six.

Then Dan Hunt was brought down just short of the line, the prop appearing to be unaware it was the last tackle and a turnover.

Former Dragons five-eighth Ben Rogers produced a mistake to hand St George Illawarra one final fling at sending the game into extra time, but centre Chase Stanley lost possession in a tackle just 10 metres out from the line with less than two minutes remaining.

Earlier, the Dragons led 14-6 at the break, Sailor's double coming on the back of some brilliance by five-eighth Jamie Soward.

His first came two minutes in, when Soward directed a cross field kick into his waiting arms and planting the ball down in the corner.

If the first try sent the WIN Jubilee Oval into raptures, the second saw the hill worshipping the former Queensland and Australian star with chants of ''Wendell, Wendell'' reverberating around the ground.

It came shortly before half-time when Soward produced a neat chip over the Newcastle defence, regathering on the full and throwing a slick no-look pass to Sailor, who toyed with the Knights as he raced across the in-goal to improve the position.

Sailor made it clear to MacDougall about his feats, as the Newcastle centre joined the team's in-goal huddle.

But MacDougall later came to find Sailor for a chat at full-time as the teams shook hands.

Newcastle's first try came through back rower Richard Fa'aoso in the 25th minute, with fullback Kurt Gidley converting to make the score 8-6 at the time, before Sailor's second secured a 14-6 half-time lead.

KNIGHTS 24 (R Fa'aoso, J Sau, I de Gois A MacDougall tries; K Gidley 4 goals) d DRAGONS 18 (W Sailor 2, J Saffy tries; J Soward 3 goals) at WIN Jubilee Oval.