Jai Arrow has emerged as one of the NRL's form forwards and the Gold Coast as the leading Queensland team following their 32-20 NRL upset of Manly.
Arrow was an unlikely two-try hero at Gladstone's Marley Brown Oval on Sunday as the Titans rocketed into the top eight.
Gold Coast were forced to hold off a Sea Eagles fightback but got the job done thanks to tries to Anthony Don and Arrow in the final six minutes.
After their second win in a row, Garth Brennan's side sit above more highly fancied Sunshine State rivals Brisbane and North Queensland.
Following their 54-8 humiliation at the hands of St George Illawarra two weeks ago, the Titans have rebounded with victories over the Broncos and Sea Eagles.
Jarrod Wallace, Bryce Cartwright and Michael Gordon were great but lock Arrow was again the Titans' standout, running for 143m as well as making 20 tackles.
After his off-season move from Brisbane, the 22-year-old workhorse has been the Titans' best and arguably one of the leading middle forwards of the competition.
Through five rounds, he has averaged 148m - the third most in the league behind David Klemmer and Martin Taupau.
"He was best on-field. He's probably been our best on-field for the first five rounds," Titans skipper Ryan James said.
"He's up there as one of the better locks in the comp at the moment."
The Titans looked home and hosed at 22-8 with 26 minutes remaining but Trent Barrett's side fought back with two quick tries in front of a crowd of 5135.
Daly Cherry-Evans, who famously backed out of a deal to join the Titans in 2015, taunted Gold Coast by intercepting an Ash Taylor pass and running 95m to score.
And when Api Koroisau scooted out of dummy-half to send Brian Kelly over, it was game on at 22-20.
However, the Titans showed a resolve that's been missing in past years.
The Sea Eagles had their share of bad luck - they were missing superstar fullback Tom Trbojevic (ankle) and Brad Parker was pulled at the last minute after suffering a "severe case of vomiting" in the warm-up.
His replacement, Jono Wright, crossed for first points but the Sea Eagles gave up the lead at the 26th minute when Arrow crossed for his first.
"It was brave, you could say that. It was a good effort to get back in the game but I just thought we were our own worst enemies at times," Barrett said.
"We conceded two tries directly off our own errors and two tries on last plays, which we spoke about. They were disappointing.
"We still scored 20 points, which should have been enough to win us the game."
Australian Associated Press
