Despite having one key player sidelined with injury and three others on State of Origin duty, Gold Coast are full of confidence heading into Sunday’s NRL match against Cronulla in Sydney.

With Greg Bird, Nate Myles and Ashley Harrison in Origin camps and Luke Bailey nursing a rib injury, Brenton Lawrence makes his starting debut at prop for the Titans alongside Matt White.

And almost a year to the day after a knee injury, Ryan James will come off the bench for Gold Coast.

Lawrence said he was annoyed by suggestions the Titans would struggle against the Sharks with so many key players missing.

“With the depth we have in the club, we can quite easily slot blokes into those positions and keep doing what we’ve been doing,” he told reporters after training on Thursday.

After racking up three wins in a row, he said confidence is high, but no-one’s focusing too much on the finals yet.

“Finals football’s in the back of your mind all year … that’s the goal. So every time you go out there, you want to be aiming towards that, but we just want to go down and win this game at Cronulla,” he said.

Lawrence said everything the side had been working on is coming together.

“There’s a bit of a buzz going – it feels good.”

He said getting his first start in first grade was a big boost.

“It means a lot. It’s a big deal to start, it’s very different to coming off the bench and I’m keen to get straight into it – I’m looking forward to it.”

White said his past two games have been the best he’s played this year, and he’s confident the team is up to the challenge of facing the Sharks on their home turf.

“It’s been unreal, everyone’s just been upbeat and there’s a good buzz around at the moment so hopefully we can keep the winning streak going,” he said.

“We’re just concentrating on week-to-week and trying to get in that top eight would be good – just to keep winning is our main goal at the moment.”