Barnstorming South Sydney back-rower Angus Crichton stepped up in the absence of the injured Sam Burgess, bagging a hat-trick to lead the Rabbitohs to a come-from-behind victory on Friday night.
South Sydney overcame a disastrous opening to their clash against the Titans to keep their top-eight hopes alive at ANZ Stadium.
But it was the rampaging performance of Crichton that was the talk of the town, the 21-year-old terrorising the Titans to show why he has been earmarked as a future representative player.
"I've had a lot of time with Angus now," Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire said.
"The first couple of years with us he had quite a number of injuries so he hasn't been able to get his game out there but I've always seen signs that he was going to develop into a great player. He came from rugby union a few years ago so he had to learn the game.
"The fact he hadn't played for that two years fighting through injury probably meant he missed a bit of development in learning the game. But he's spent quite a bit of time with our senior guys and talks to them about footy. He's got a thirst to learn the game which is one of his biggest strengths."
The Rabbitohs fought back from an early 14-0 deficit to ​a severely depleted Gold Coast, who had Jarryd Hayne and Nathan Peats looking on from the bench due to State of Origin commitments.
The Rabbitohs were short on troops themselves, losing stand-in skipper Burgess before kick-off to a glute strain.
In front of a crowd of just 7136, the Rabbitohs struggled to generate any rhythm in the early exchanges, shooting themselves in the foot on a number of occasions to give the Titans a boost out of the blocks.
The Titans had a scare early when skipper Ryan James left the field with what looked a serious knee injury, only to return 15 minutes later to take his place back in the line-up.
His return was a huge addition given the Titans were without 10 regular NRL players -Â including Kane Elgey, Anthony Don and Tyrone Roberts - but the Rabbitohs did enough to ensure they would leapfrog them on the ladder with the victory.
The visitors finished the game with just three healthy players on the bench losing Joe Greenwood (concussion), Pat Politoni (ankle) and Ash Taylor (concussion) throughout the course of the match.
The Titans got off to a dream start, scoring early when former Tigers and Sharks hooker Pat Politoni latched on to a Nathaniel Peteru offload to open the account.
The Rabbitohs compounded their woes when a goal-line drop-out went out on the full, allowing the Titans to extend their lead to eight points in as many minutes.
Politoni was involved in the Titans' next try, with a fortuitous ricochet off a close-range grubber falling into the arms of Kevin Proctor, who found his way to the line in his first game back from suspension for being caught on CCTV using cocaine after the ANZAC Test in Canberra.
The Titans almost grabbed their third try soon after, only for the bunker to deny Konrad Hurrell for failing to ground an Ash Taylor grubber.
The Rabbitohs made them pay soon after, with Crichton bursting through some soft defence to spark the recovery.
"When he first came in he was just raw," John Sutton said of Crichton.
"He had the strength but didn't know how to use it. At training he would go at 100 miles an hour and get tired very quickly. He's definitely developing rapidly. It's good to see. I'm very proud of the way he has been going."
Alex Johnston reduced the deficit to 14-10 soon after, but the Rabbitohs' resurgence was brought to a sudden halt on the stroke of half-time when Joe Greenwood put the ball down on the line despite the attention of five Rabbitohs defenders to stretch the margin back to 10.
The Rabbitohs started the second half like the Titans did the first, crossing early through Cody Walker to make it a four-point game with 34 minutes remaining.
The South Sydney resurgence didn't stop there, with boom back-rower Crichton grabbing his second try after a runaway Robbie Farah laid the platform in the ensuing play.
The Rabbitohs then put their foot on the Titans' throat, putting the result beyond doubt with tries to Hymel Hunt and Johnston giving the home side a 32-20 advantage with 13 minutes remaining.
Crichton then put the icing on the cake with a powerhouse 40-metre run to the tryline to grab his first career hat-trick and his seventh try of the season.
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