Representative utility Greg Bird will come to the rescue should an untried Gold Coast halves combination of Jordan Rankin and Aidan Sezer struggle to click against Wests Tigers on Saturday night.
Sezer, 21, has played just two NRL games for the Titans, while 20-year-old Rankin takes over from injured No.7 Scott Prince after drifting between the halves and fullback.
But a hamstring injury to long-term signing William Zillman has thrust the inexperienced youngsters together against Tigers duo Tom Humble and Kiwi superstar Benji Marshall, who will test out his young rivals.
Sezer, who will assume Prince’s goalkicking duties, and Rankin ran in the halves on Friday morning to suggest the pair would at least start the game at Skilled Park.
With Luke Douglas and Mark Minichiello on his interchange bench, Titans coach John Cartwright can easily swing Bird into the halves if needed.
“We’ve got Greg Bird there who can play five-eighth so I’ll probably sleep on it overnight,” said Cartwright.
“At this stage we’ll keep Jordan at half and Aidan at five-eighth.”
Despite the depleted nature of their line-up, Tigers coach Tim Sheens said his side could not afford to underestimate the Titans.
The Tigers have just started to repair a campaign that threatened to implode with five straight losses after an opening-round win.
“You cannot disrespect anybody – it doesn’t matter where you are on the table,” Sheens said.
“We can’t certainly, we’re not that far up the table.
“We haven’t got six or seven wins behind us. We have to work as hard as any team and against any team.
“We’ve finally got our feet on the ground and had a couple of wins and we want to build on that.”
Bird looked in top order at training and a big game on Saturday night against the Tigers would clinch him a NSW Origin jumper.
The Titans will need big games from both Bird and centre Jamal Idris, who has to get more involved following an innocuous start to 2012 after promising so much.
Queensland Origin forward Ashley Harrison will have his work cut out around the edges where Marshall and hooker Robbie Farah, who’s playing for the NSW No.9 jumper, can be so dangerous.
“You’ve got to expect the unexpected with them,” warned Harrison.
“Benji plays off-the-cuff and Farah is very creative so we know we have to be on our toes around the middle.”
The Tigers trained in Sydney on Friday morning before heading to the Gold Coast for a game both sides desperately need to win to put their seasons back on track.