Gold Coast coach Neil Henry was happy with Jarryd Hayne's performance at fullback in the Titans' loss to Penrith, but called for him to improve for their last regular-season match against North Queensland.
The Titans need an away victory over the Cowboys next weekend to be sure of reaching the finals.
Although outshone by opposite number Matt Moylan in the 15-14 defeat and looking to be feeling the pace of the game at times in his first game at in the No.1 jumper for two years, Hayne led the way with 203 run metres and managed six tackle breaks.
In the 37th minute, he gave Titans fans an exciting glimpse of what to expect in the future when he took an offload from Leivaha Pulu and burst deep into the Panthers' half.
"He had a few nice touches there," Henry said.
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"He'll be better for that run too at the back, but we haven't got much time so he needs to be better for that run next week and play his part within the team.
"We probably got too lateral there trying to find him out the back.
"We wanted to play through the middle and that's what we started to do in the second half and was where we got our points.
"The fullback is a difficult role - they tested him a little bit early on with the high ball.
I thought he was safe at the back and he came up with a couple of big tackles on line breaks so he played his role," Henry said.
