Warriors 36
Titans 14
The Warriors revealed their true potency and kept their top-four ambitions alive with a clinical away win over the Titans tonight.
The visitors dominated the second-half on the back of a powerful forward effort, with prop Ben Matulino leading the way, while halfback Shaun Johnson scored a double and kicked six from six for a 20-point haul.
England international Sam Tomkins played just his fourth game of the season after being confirmed as Tui Lolohea's fullback replacement before kickoff, providing some classy touches in conjunction with halves Johnson and Chad Townsend.
After failing to shut the door on the Sydney Roosters last week, the Warriors showed resilience and grit to come back from 10-0 and overwhelm the Titans.
In-form Titans centre James Roberts set up a first-half try for Josh Hoffman and scored a contentious four-pointer with 11 minutes remaining, but the Warriors sealed the result with a late points flurry.
Centre Konrad Hurrell posted the Warriors' fourth try to give him six four-pointers in six matches against the Gold Coast, while Nathan Friend, Raymond Faitala-Mariner, and Bodene Thompson were the other try scorers.
"We just had a real determination tonight. I don't know if it's our best win but it's important after two losses," said coach Andrew McFadden.
"We really have to get some momentum in our season if we want to make something of it so it was an important step for us.
"It was a good step up from last week. We stayed composed and on plan and our halves controlled the game but our middles laid the platform and everyone fed off that.
"It was very pleasing considering we haven't won too many games after being behind at halftime."
The Warriors enjoyed the run of play early on, trapping the home side in-goal on three occasions but the defence responded in kind.
They were dealt a blow when an Eddy Pettybourne high shot forced Friend off, but he returned to stiffen the defence in the second quarter, along with bench prop Charlie Gubb and Origin forward pair Ryan Hoffman and Jacob Lillyman.
The Titans hit back from broken play when Roberts linked with Nene Macdonald to put Hoffman in to score, with Aidan Sezer's conversion making it 6-0.
They maintained their momentum with Lachlan Burr scoring under the bar, but the Warriors capitalised on their next attacking foray when Friend jumped out of dummy-half to dive over.
They continued to build pressure on the Titans' line and forced a fourth line dropout before Gubb was denied a try by the video referee.
The Titans then had three chances close to the Warriors' line in the shade of halftime but handling errors and scrambling defence allowed the visitors to hang on.
The Warriors continued to grind their way through the middle following the restart and showed urgency on defence to repeatedly force the Titans to work it off their line.
The pressure told eventually with Tomkins putting Faitala-Mariner in before Johnson and then Hurrell carved through for a 14-point lead.
Apart from Roberts' late effort it was all one-way traffic with Thompson and Johnson topping a confidence-boosting display that moved them back up the ladder into seventh position ahead of next Saturday' match against the Canberra Raiders at Mt Smart Stadium.
WARRIORS 36 (Nathan Friend, Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Shaun Johnson 2, Konrad Hurrell, Bodene Thompson tries; Johnson 6 cons)
TITANS 14 (Josh Hoffman, Lachlan Burr, James Roberts tries, Sezer 1 con)