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GOLD COAST - Gold Coast co-captain Luke Bailey believes the acid test for the Titans will come on Saturday when they face the New Zealand Warriors in Auckland.
Bailey said the Titans had restored some confidence in themselves, particularly in defence, after defeating Wests Tigers 30-14 in last night's NRL clash at Carrara Stadium to snap a five-match losing streak.
But the inspirational prop warned there was plenty of work ahead if the Titans were to win three of their remaining four games in the regular season to secure an historic NRL finals berth.
"We'll take a little bit of confidence away from this (the 16-point win over the Tigers) but our big test has always been playing away from the Gold Coast and there's no bigger game than the Warriors over there," Bailey pointed out.
"We're not getting ahead of ourselves. We got a bit of confidence in parts of the game in defence but it steps up next week because the Warriors are twice the size.
"To be honest I don't think we've handled big sides too good and if we can win over there I think confidence will be sky-high and we'll be ready to rock."
When asked if the game against the Tigers was a must-win, Gold Coast coach John Cartwright said the players were only focused on restoring pride in themselves.
"When you are on a losing streak you can't keep saying it's a must-win game," he remarked.
"It just falls on deaf ears. The main focus for us has been just to get a bit of pride back in ourselves and try to get back to playing the football, especially defensively, we were earlier in the year.
"The final eight is out of our hands. We can win five games and still not make it so I'm not going to talk about it too much.
"It's just really nice to get a win...and start feeling good about ourselves again."
Titans halfback Scott Prince was dominant in his first match back from a three-week lay-off due to a collarbone injury.
"I was a little bit rusty," a modest Prince said.
"I'm just happy to get over the injury. I think (Tigers forward Liam) Fulton certainly tested it out early but it was good."
Prince handed out some tips to the opposition on how to blunt the impact of Tigers hooker Robie Farah, who was man-of-the-match in the 54-10 thrashing of North Queensland on Monday but was shut down by the Titans last night.
"The thing you have to do is play the slow-the-ball down and win that ruck area because if he gets a quick play-the-ball it doesn't matter what defensive pattern you've got, he'll carve it up," the halfback said.
"He showed that against the Cowboys last week and he showed it in patches last night."
- AAP
