St George-Illawarra have gone undefeated over the first month of the NRL for the first time in the merged club’s history, after beating Newcastle 30-12 at WIN Stadium.

Easily the best attacking team over the opening month of the competition with Ben Hunt and Gareth Widdop at the helm, the Dragons laid on five tries to continue on their merry way on Sunday.

The victory took the Dragons’ attacking aggregate to 138 for the season, at an average of 34 points per game, to keep them at the top of the ladder ahead of the similarly undefeated Warriors.

Hunt and Widdop were again magnificent in attack, linking directly twice for two tries in four minutes in the first-half to take the control of a match they never relinquished.

In just their fourth game together, the pair first threw long cut-out balls before Tim Lafai provided a falling flick pass for Nene Macdonald – who is becoming a serious strike weapon the left wing.

Moments later, they were at it again off the back of a set piece to create space for Matt Dufty to put Euan Aitken in and set up an 18-6 lead after the two teams had traded tries early.

For all their flair, the Dragons made just five errors and completed at 83 per cent in the rout, while their forwards were again dominant up front.

Jack de Belin – who declared last week he was made for State of Origin with NSW – produced bell-ringing tackles to force errors in the lead up to each of Hunt and Widdop’s first-half efforts.

Prop Paul Vaughan – whose Origin chances also increased with the Blues’ losses of Andrew Fifita and Jordan McLean over the weekend – ran 143 metres, James Graham had 156 and Leeson Ah Mau scored his first try in almost four years.

Newcastle’s loss marked their second in as many weeks after they started the season with two wins.

They also lost centre Tautau Moga to a knee injury when he was hurt stepping for the game’s opening try, before the Dragons took control and played the Knights out of the match.