Gold Coast Titans coach Neil Henry admitted he tried to bring Nathan Peats from the field when the side raced out to an 18-point lead against the Wests Tigers but the tireless rake refused to come off.
Only 48 hours after throwing everything on the line against the Maroons in Origin II, the 26-year-old experienced his first time backing up from a representative fixture and racked up 52 tackles in the Titans' 26-14 win on Friday night to go with 57 made in Origin II.
Henry sensed both Peats and teammate Jarryd Hayne were still feeling the effects of New South Wales' two-point loss to the Maroons in Game Two but were eager to get back to club football and help the Titans snap a four-game losing streak.
"I think both he and Peatsy were down [mentally]," Henry said.
"Nathan's effort to play back-to-back 80 minutes was fantastic and he didn't want to come off.
"We had Pat Politoni [on the bench] there to replace him but he refused and stayed out there which is a testament to what he's like."
It was a 10-minute burst of Hayne brilliance from the 50th minute that swung the momentum heavily in the Titans' favour and Henry said at half-time the side spoke about trying to have the former Australian international involved more in the second period.
"That's what [Hayne] can do when he injects himself into the game, on the back of our boys getting on a roll with some momentum he can add the final touch there," he said.
"It was one of those games where momentum went to both sides and I thought we defended well for a large majority of the game.
"We controlled possession and had a couple of nice touches for tries but bombed a couple as well.
"We wasted some field position in the first half and kicked early on three occasions and one out on the full. Consequently we had to defend our line and the strip call that went our way but we will take a lot of positives out of that.
"There were a couple of tries on our edges and one under the posts but overall it's one of the best defensive efforts we've had in a while."
Despite the win, Gold Coast remain in 14th position on the Telstra Premiership ladder but with the bye in a fortnight, the club have identified the next month of the draw as crucial in a bid to push for a late finals charge.
"There is an important period here where we've got the Dragons into a bye, so if we're going to sneak up the ladder a little bit and be a chance to make the eight we need to get some momentum out of this game," Henry said.
"Across the park we played our role tonight and got a result we badly needed."
