The Newcastle Knights have returned to the NRL top eight with a dominant 32-12 win over the Gold Coast Titans at Skilled Park.

The night will be remembered however for the debut of 16-year-old Jordan Rankin, who impressed coming off the bench for the home side.

The Australian schoolboys halfback sat nervously on the bench for 52 minutes before being thrown into the action, and immediately showed confidence belying his tender years.

The Year 11 student began with an unconvincing attempt at tackle, being bumped away by Knights centre Junior Sau, who bagged a double for the Knights.

With his first touch though Rankin put in a chip and chase, and it almost came off.

Titans lock Luke O'Dwyer regathered, but the support overran the ball and O'Dwyer ended up passing to a Knights player.

The Burleigh junior persisted, and just seven minutes into his NRL career looked sure to score, backing up a rampaging Josh Graham just five metres out from the Knights line.

The offload went straight to Rankin's hands, but he spilt the ball, and the Knights were able to clean up.

"My defence wasn't on par," Rankin told Fox Sports after the match.

"There were a few big boys out there tonight and that's something I'll work on.

"I got roughed up before but that was something you'd expect.

"I wish I could have scored that try.

"I'm back to school tomorrow, I've got to start studying for my end of term tests."

What will boost the youngster's confidence was the fact the Titans looked most dangerous when he was on the field.

Unfortunately for the home crowd of 15, 136 though, the damage was already done when he came on.

Taking a 16-6 lead into halftime, the Knights wrapped up the game with two quick tries to open the second stanza.

Both came against the Titans' right side defence, with Sau scoring his second in the 41st minute, and second rower Corey Paterson strolling to touch down on almost the same blade of grass ten minutes later.

That took the score to 26-6, and from there only the introduction of Rankin drew any interest, with handling errors dominating the closing periods as both sides attempted to play attacking football.

Cooper Vuna scored again for the Knights before Brad Myers got a consolation effort for the Titans on the stroke of fulltime.

Earlier, Adam MacDougall was placed on report by referee Steve Lyons twice within 30 seconds.

MacDougall first came under scrutiny in the 15th minute for a head slam on his opposite Gavin Cooper, before being cited for a dangerous throw on Titans forward Michael Hodgson with teammate Steve Simpson moments later.

Titans coach John Cartwright was impressed with Rankin's debut, but is unlikely to keep him in the side for the remainder of the season.

"He showed touches of class," Cartwright said of the youngster.

"In all honesty he's not really ready for first grade and I wanted to see how he did handle it.

"He didn't play like a natural halfback and he was probably a little bit overawed when he got out there, but individually he came out with some brilliant things.

"I would have liked to see him catch that ball and get a try, it would have been a bit of a thrill."

While still a mathematical chance to make the finals, Cartwright admitted his side was unlikely to see September action, with a long injury list making the hard task of winning three of the four remaining matches near impossible.

The Knights' victory marked the first time the club has won three games in succession in two seasons, but coach Brian Smith wasn't getting too excited.

"It's nice, we haven't done it in the last couple of years, so that's an achievement in itself," he said.

"(But) we probably played three teams who were down on their luck."

Newcastle skipper Danny Buderus received stitches after a blow to his head, but is likely to be fit for next week.

Titans second rower Mark Minichiello limped off with what looked like a recurrence of his ankle injury, and will be assessed on Tuesday.

Gold Coast officials are hopeful star halfback Scott Prince could make an early return from a broken arm against North Queensland on Saturday, with club doctors to assess x-rays on Tuesday morning.

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