Warriors 30 Titans 6

TRY the Superman ride at Gold Coast theme park Movie World and you'll get some idea of how fast the New Zealand Warriors are travelling.

The roller-coaster takes you from zero to 100 kmh in the blink of an eye, but the Warriors, fuelled last night by Grant Rovelli's three tries, are going just as fast as they power towards the finals.

The best home crowd of the season (20,609) roared the Warriors to their seventh win in nine games, making light of the non-appearance of fullback Wade McKinnon (ankle), who was replaced by Todd Byrne, with Patrick Ah Van playing on the right wing.

Star Gold Coast centre Mat Rogers (knee) was not risked, and his defensive organisation was sadly lacking as the Titans were rolled over in the early stages by a jet-heeled Warriors back line feeding off the bruising running of their fearsome pack.

If they beat the Raiders on Saturday in Canberra, the Warriors will set themselves up for a huge clash with Manly at Mt Smart Stadium on August 26, which could clinch their place in the top four and seal a home semi-final.

Even if they fail to cage the Eagles, the fragile Panthers (away) in their last game will offer a second top-four chance.

The Titans are now in Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster land, probably needing to win all three remaining games to make the top eight.

Their promising first season is now teetering on the edge.

From the fifth minute, when winger Manu Vatuvei unloaded too easily in a tackle to find Rovelli, the graffiti was on the wall.

Rovelli sped and swerved 75 metres, leaving Titans fullback Preston Campbell in his dust.

The halfback repeated the dose after centre Simon Mannering fled down the left-hand touchline and found Rovelli, who scampered 40m unchallenged, putting the home side ahead 12-0.

When Jerome Ropati crossed in the 20th minute from a wide pass by Michael Witt, it was 18-0.

Mannering had a try ruled out by the video referee and then Titans winger Smith Samau was pulled back for a forward pass three minutes before half-time, summing up 40 minutes of fruitless toil for the visitors.

The diminutive Campbell showed them the way forward when he escaped four Warriors early in the second half to avoid a goal-line drop-out, sparking a mini-revival.

Scott Prince's deft kick through was pounced on by Anthony Laffranchi and referee Ben Cummins awarded the try, despite a hint of a knock-on by the scorer.

At 6-18 down the Titans, helped by Warriors' knock-ons, were back in the hunt, helped further when a Steve Price obstruction on Campbell ruled out a Wairangi Koopu touchdown after some scintillating handling and offloading.

When Campbell blew an overlap with a wild pass into touch as the Titans threatened again, the Warriors ground their way upfield and Rovelli soon had a treble.

Witt's goal left them 24-6 up and

the Warriors faithful started planning for finals football. Bring it on.