Ricky Stuart’s State of Origin plans were thrown into disarray on Monday night, with NSW certainties Kurt Gidley, Danny Buderus, Michael Jennings and Luke Lewis suffering injuries as Newcastle thumped Penrith 34-14 in a night of carnage for the Blues.

Gidley picked up the most serious of them – a recurrence of his left shoulder injury suffered against Cronulla earlier this season – when he attempted to tackle Penrith forward Clint Newton.

Buderus’s night ended in the first half with a flare up of the Achilles injury which kept him out of City-Country last weekend, while Jennings left the field with 20 minutes to go with a shoulder injury.

Jennings suffered nerve damage to his neck after landing awkwardly while attempting to score a try, and was soon joined in the Penrith injury ward when Lewis left the field favouring his left arm which had hampered him throughout the second half.

The Knights, spurred on by a pumped up Willie Mason in his first NRL match since 2010, put in their most polished attacking performance of the year and dominated the contest with their left-hand attack of Timana Tahu and James McManus causing headaches all night.

McManus opened the scoring in the sixth minute from a Tahu pass, while the pair combined again to put five-eighth Jarrod Mullen over the tryline 12 minutes later.

Second-rower Zeb Taia scored the Knights’ third in the 31st minute when he accepted another Tahu pass to score an easy try out wide.

Mason joined the action in the 28th minute to massive applause from the healthy crowd and didn’t wait long to make his mark.

The former Test and NSW forward, playing his first NRL game since 2010, bent the Penrith line and earned a penalty with his first touch of a 21-minute stint.

Penrith ended a drought of their own in the 24th minute when centre Michael Jennings shrugged off an attempted tackle from Newcastle’s Wes Naiqama to cross out wide, their first points in 202 minutes of NRL football.

They didn’t have to wait quite as long for their next points – with Newton crossing for a double in the second half, but it was never going to be enough for the win with Tahu, Gidley and Neville Costigan crossing early in the second half to put the result beyond doubt.

Penrith halfback Luke Walsh suffered a suspected medial ligament knee injury in the first half, expected to keep him sidelined for up to six weeks.