The nib Newcastle Knights have suffered back-to-back defeats going down 38-4 to the Sydney Roosters in Round 8 on Saturday night.
The Roosters dominated the affair from start to finish as the Knights suffered their fifth loss of the season at McDonald Jones Stadium.
A Josh Morris hat-trick and impressive display from rookie Sam Walker led the away side to victory.
A see of red and blue filled MJS for the first Saturday of May with a 22,172 crowd in attendance.
However, the Roosters were the team flying from the first whistle.
The away side struck first heading down the left hand side in the 5th minute.
Rookie halfback Sam Walker threw a cut out pass for Daniel Tupou and the ball hit the flying winger on the chest for him to race around and open the scoring.
The Roosters were at the double soon after when Josh Morris made his way over.
Walker found Tupou again with an over-the-top floater and the winger found Morris back on the inside. The halfback missed his second conversion to keep the score at 10-0.
Walker continued to terrorize the Knights in the opening stages with a kick-in-behind which led to the Roosters third try.
Enari Tuala fumbled the ball in the in-goal and Angus Crichton was on the spot to plant the ball in the 15th minute.
The Roosters continued their dominant opening in the 20th minute, scoring off another kick.
A cross field kick found Brett Morris who ventured down the sideline and found Matt Ikuvalu supporting back through the middle.
Walker converted to put the score out to 20-0.
The Knights swung the momentum and began to find field position.
Kalyn Ponga made it count firing a bullet-like pass to Brayden Musgrove who crossed for the Knights first try in the 29th minute.
The four-pointer was Musgrove's first in the top grade, a milestone moment for the Cessnock junior.
Ponga provides Musgrove his first NRL try
The score remained 20-4 heading to the sheds at half-time as the Knights faced an uphill battle in the remaining 40 minutes.
The Knights had an early share of possession off a couple of Roosters errors at the start of the second stanza.
The Roosters defence proved too strong sending away waves of Knights attacks.
And just like the first half, the Roosters would counter at lightning speed and made the Knights pay in the 54th minute.
Brett Morris went charging up the right hand side, got the ball back to Ikuvalu and Walker was the third man in support.
The halfback received the ball and raced around to score under the sticks to put the score out to 26-4.
Walker continued his impressive display setting up Brett Morris for the Roosters sixth try of the night eight minutes later.
A break through the middle made its way to the young halfback who stepped a couple of Knights defenders and found an unmarked Morris with a pin-point kick.
The Knights suffered a late scare with halfback Blake Green forced off with an injury inflicting more pain on the team.
The Tricolours would wrap up a commanding victory when Josh Morris secured his hat-trick with two minutes left on the clock.
Walker added the two to make it 38-4.
The red and blue would lick their wounds and will target a bounce-back victory against the Canberra Raiders away in Wagga Wagga next Saturday.
