Lamb showed maturity beyond his years on Saturday with a classy display in the Knights’ breakthrough 21-14 victory against St George Illawarra at McDonald Jones Stadium.

The 20-year-old from Maitland scored Newcastle’s opening try after regaining his own grubber kick, and then created one with a pinpoint bomb for winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall.

His performance came just days after the Knights announced they had signed livewire Watson from the Roosters, and only a few weeks after Lamb made a crucial error and then missed a long-range penalty attempt in Newcastle’s 20-18 loss to Canterbury.

After just 21 NRL games, the former Australian Schoolboy is learning fast in the school of hard knocks and believes the arrival of Watson – who has been guaranteed an extended run at five-eighth – will enhance the team.

“All I know is Connor’s a great player and it’s going to create healthy competition,’’ Lamb told the Newcastle Herald.

“It will be good for me and him. I guess we can battle it out, or maybe one of us will play a different position.

“Whatever is best for the team, that’s the main thing.”

Lamb said he would have no qualms about taking on a new role, despite playing almost exclusively as a five-eighth throughout his junior career.

“Mate, I’d play anywhere in this team,’’ he said. “They're a great bunch of blokes and I just have to keep playing well this year. We’ll see what happens in the future.”

Lamb said he had taken the heartbreak he suffered at Belmore in his stride and had not let it affect his confidence.

“As bad as it was at the time, it’s probably helped me in my career,’’ he said.

“It’s probably put me in good stead. I made sure today, when we were hanging onto our lead, that I managed the game a bit better.”

Knights coach Nathan Brown was full of praise for Lamb but confirmed that Watson had been signed to play as “a running six”, having been used as a utility by the Roosters. 

“Connor Watson is that type of player,’’ Brown said.

“He’s a real threat at the line. We’ll have some good competition in the halves next year with Connor coming … six will be the spot we put him in and give him a chance to develop his game.

“We don’t want to move him. But that’s for next year. For now, Brock’s learning his trade where he is and he’s enjoying it.’’

Brown said Lamb deserved credit for how he had bounced back from the loss to Canterbury, and pointed out that he was playing first grade far earlier in his career than players like Ben Hunt and Daly Cherry-Evans.

“Individually, if you look at Brock Lamb, he’s copped his share, which is fair enough, he’s playing in an elite field … Brock Lamb is playing first grade well before he should have been playing first grade, which everyone needs to acknowledge,’’ Brown said.

“What we saw today, he had a very, very good defensive game, he kicked the ball really well and he was error-free.

“So that’s a really good response from him after he’s had a tough few weeks.’’

Brown was also delighted with the contributions of hooker Danny Levi and prop Daniel Saifiti.