The Gold Coast Titans have maintained top spot on the NRL ladder with a hard-fought 36-24 win over the New Zealand Warriors at a steamy Skilled Park.
Temperatures touched 28 degrees on the Gold Coast, forcing the match officials to allow the players to have drink breaks at the 20-minute mark of each half.
It was the home side who handled the heat better, establishing an 18-point lead in the first half thanks largely to Preston Campbell and then holding on to record their fifth win in succession.
The Warriors, led by Michael Witt, fought hard, but made too many mistakes and missed too many tackles, 34 to 17.
Scott Prince imposed himself on the game early, forcing Lance Hohaia into conceding a line drop-out and then in the subsequent set of six dribbling the ball through for Ashley Harrison to pounce on and score a converted try.
Titans winger Ben Jeffery then got on the end of what looked like a forward pass from Luke O'Dwyer down the left to make it 12-0 after 15 minutes.
The Warriors opened their account when Nathan Fien's close-range grubber bounced off two sets of legs before Michael Luck touched down. Witt added the extras.
Campbell then almost single-handedly broke the game open, setting up one try and scoring another. He used every evasive trick in his arsenal to get past four Warriors players before offloading to Brad Meyers to score next to the posts.
Two minutes later the full-back went over himself, surging into a gap in the Warriors' defence on the half-way line and then burning clear to make it 24-6 after Prince's fourth conversion.
The Warriors cut the lead back to 12 at the half when Witt's long cut-out pass gave Manu Vatuvei the space out wide to dive over for a try which was then well-converted from the sideline by the Warriors No.6.
Straight after the resumption, the Warriors conceded a costly penalty deep in defence and a minute later Nathan Friend's clever pass allowed Anthony Laffranchi to stroll over under the bar and Prince then re-established the Titans' 18-point lead.
Witt kept the Warriors in it, recovering a knocked down pass and charging through the Titans defence to make it 30-18 after the successful kick just before the hour mark.
But Campbell put himself back in the game in the 70th minute, dribbling the ball through twice for Jeffrey to recover and find debutant Brenton Bowen to score his first NRL try with his second touch of the football. Prince sealed the deal with his sixth conversion. Witt completed his double late on with a chip and chase but it was all too late.
Titans 36
Tries: Harrison, Jeffery, Meyers, Campbell, Laffranchi, Bowen
Conversions: Prince 6
Warriors 24
Tries: Witt 2, Luck, Vatuvei
Conversions: Witt 4
Sportal's NRL Player of the Year
3 - Preston Campbell (Titans)
2 - Anthony Laffranchi (Titans)
1 - Michael Witt (Warriors)