Newcastle has returned to the NRL's top eight for the first time in more than a year by holding off a gutsy Warriors side in a 34-24 win.
In Sunday's earlier match, Gold Coast scores a late converted try to pip St George Illawarra 20-18 in Robina.
Up 22-6 at half-time, the Knights looked at risk of becoming the second team to fall victim to a Warriors comeback in as many weeks when the visitors got the score back to 22-18.
But a costly Marcelo Montoya error coming out of his own end killed off the visitors' momentum, before Kurt Mann regained control of the match with a try in the next set.
The result could have come at a cost though, with Knights captain Jayden Brailey suffering a meniscus injury on the same knee in which he ruptured his ACL during 2020.
The Warriors also have concerns, with five-eighth Te Maire Martin suffering a suspected broken leg after a try-saving tackle from Knights five-eighth Phoenix Crossland.
Crossland was not penalised on field, but there were some suggestions of a hip-drop tackle as he swung around the playmaker in the tackle and contacted the back of Martin's legs.
Warriors hooker Wayde Egan was injured in a clash of heads, ruling him out of Saturday's match against North Queensland.
Among the favourites for the wooden spoon at the start of the season, the Knights are now in a finals-playing position for the first time since round four last year.
Once again they did it off the back of winger Dominic Young, who scored their first try when he carried Montoya over the line and played a crucial role in their second.
After he marked a cross-field kick, he sprinted to take a 20-metre tap and put Lachlan Miller into space, before Greg Marzhew scored on the other wing on the next play.
Young was dropped only a fortnight ago, but since his return last week the athletic winger has scored four tries against Manly before starring against the Warriors.
The Knights also went in through Tyson Frizell and Crossland via kicks before half-time and looked home at 22-6.
But the Warriors were valiant, as they threatened to repeat their comeback from 20-0 down against Cronulla last week.
Shaun Johnson was again brilliant down the right edge, putting Adam Pompey over for two tries.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad also impressed at fullback, as he and Johnson combined to help put Edward Kosi over to narrow the margin to four points with 23 minutes to play.
The Warriors crossed once more through Jackson Ford after Mann's match-sealing try, but ultimately there was too much to do, and the Auckland-based side's hopes of drawing level with ladder-leaders Brisbane were extinguished.
Titans come from behind to down Dragons
Gold Coast five-eighth Toby Sexton stepped up in his first NRL appearance of the season to score the match-winning try against St George Illawarra.
The 22-year-old dummied his way through in the 76th minute after delivering a brilliant performance in the absence of injured veteran Kieran Foran.
Sexton kicked superbly throughout the match and had a hand in the Titans' only try of the first half in a display of grit and class.
Last year he played 19 games in a badly beaten side and was overlooked at the start of the season before answering the call on Sunday when his team needed him.
Dragons captain Ben Hunt looked to have won it in the 73rd minute when he gave his side the lead but the Titans dug deep to move into the top eight.
The scoreline was 8-8 at half-time after both sides saved tries and bombed them with regularity in front of 12,452 fans.
Dragons back-rower Jaydn Su'A was penalised for starting a fracas when he raced in to give Titans captain Tino Fa'asuamaleaui a shove after a heavy tackle on Dragons fullback Tyrell Sloan.
The subsequent melee was full of feeling, a reflection of how desperate both sides are to get themselves into finals contention in 2023.
Dragons winger Mikaele Ravalawa put his hand up to bulldoze his way over from 15m early in the second half after vision from Hunt gave him space.
The best player on the field, Titans winger Phil Sami who ran for a stunning 275 metres, repeated the dose with a charge of his own.
Su'A was put on report for a hip-drop tackle on Titans half Tanah Boyd and then helped Ravalawa stop Boyd from scoring.
But it was the Titans who saved multiple tries at the death before Sexton's heroics.
Dragons prop Francis Molo was sin-binned for high shot on Moeaki Fotuaika in the fourth minute but his teammates scrambled while he was off to stop winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira scoring twice.
They bombed three tries of their own as both teams failed to ice their chances.
Dragons centre Zac Lomax is an aerial specialist and made a determined, diagonal run to snaffle a pinpoint Ben Hunt bomb and score the first try.
With AJ Brimson out with a calf injury, his electrifying replacement at fullback, Jayden Campbell, took it upon himself to ignite the Titans with an old-fashioned run-around with Sexton.
Former Leeds Rhino skipper Kruise Leeming came on for the Titans with 30 minutes to go and in doing so became the first player born in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, to play in the NRL.
Story By:AAP/ABC
Original Story link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-09/nrl-titans-dragons-knights-warriors/102200956
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