A busted Damien Cook led South Sydney to glory against Newcastle on Sunday, fighting back from a 14-0 deficit to score 46 consecutive points in the NRL elimination final.

The Rabbitohs are now 80 minutes away from their third preliminary final in as many seasons after the scrappy 46-20 win at ANZ Stadium.

Cook’s 75-metre sprint for the final try of the afternoon was rugby league poetry and capped off a brilliant but tough performance.

The NSW hooker made seven tackle breaks and set up a try at the end of both halves for Souths, but stayed down after each contact in the final 40 minutes.

His ailment is unknown, but after playing 21 games this season and 19 straight, he’s like many in the NRL finals playing busted.

The 30 tackles he made against the Knights would not have helped his personal cause.

In a scrappy game where Souths made nine errors in the first half, they simply had the patience to finish off the game with Junior Tatola and Alex Johnston both scoring doubles.

The win booked them a date with Parramatta at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday night, where the winner will play Penrith in a preliminary final in Sydney the following week.

The Knights followed a trend that endured the weekend where the loser of each final scored first.

But they bucked another trend.

It was the first match in nine games this season where they have scored first and lost.

Full of energy from the kick off, the Knights raced out to a 12-0 lead after seven minutes.

Sending danger signs early, fullback Kalyn Ponga shot a bullet pass out to the right edge for Hymel Hunt to score in the opening minute.

A cut out pass from Mitchell Pearce to second-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon gave Bradman Best the space to charge through for the Knights’ second, and a penalty soon after had them up 14-0.

Souths hit back with three consecutive tries in eight minutes to level the scores at 14-all before they found a second gear.

The Knights made the fatal mistake of leaving space at marker and Cook put the burners on to cut through, setting up Cameron Murray under the posts.

And from there, Souths did not concede again until the final minute when Hunt scored his second of the afternoon.

In front of a healthy crowd of 17,212, the Knights were overrun in their first finals match since 2013.