St George Illawarra finally relieved some of the heat on coach Nathan Brown, taking care of round one hotshots Gold Coast 30-12 at WIN Stadium.

The Dragons found their groove with three tries in the space of 13 minutes after halftime, the gutsy win coming after a week of negative publicity for the red and whites and due reward for the 10,521 fans who braved a wet Easter Monday in Wollongong.

Brown's vote of confidence in new halves combination Jamie Soward and Rangi Chase - who he said he would persevere with no matter what the result - paid off with the duo having a leading hand in all five of the Dragons' tries.

The win may also lead to a vote of confidence in Brown, with many experts calling for his head following the opening round loss to Wests Tigers.

The teams went to the break locked at 6-6 after Matt Cooper and Nathan Friend traded four-pointers in a sloppy opening term, but the Dragons came out on a mission following the break.

Having bombarded Titans winger Ben Jeffrey with high balls throughout the opening term, Soward tested out opposite winger Jordan Atkins with his first kick of the second period.

Atkins, the hero of Gold Coast's opening round win with four tries, quickly turned villain as he let the ball bounce, Dragons flyer Jason Nightingale scarcely able to believe his luck as he pounced on the loose ball to go over untouched.

The rain got heavier but it couldn't douse the red hot Dragons, Chase grubbering for Mark Gasnier to score a simple try before the Kiwi five-eighth did it all himself as he stepped past Mat Rogers and Anthony Laffranchi to make it 24-6 after 53 minutes.

The shellshocked Titans regrouped as handling errors again became a feature of the home side's play, Scott Prince kicking for Laffranchi to score and once more make a game of it on the hour.

Ill-discipline cruelled the visitors with Soward extending the lead to beyond two converted tries before his boot again laid it on a platter for Cooper to make it a double, the former Test centre doing well to pull up as he slid into the brick wall below the grandstand.

Having blasted his troops for what he labelled a disgraceful performance last week, Brown said he would only be thrilled with the response if it continued for the coming weeks.

"The guys responded great, it was a good tough performance," Brown said.

"We're happy now, we challenge ourselves to turn up next week and head to Canberra and do well again."

Soward claimed the faith put in him by Brown before the game had played a large part in his confident performance.

The former Sydney Roosters lower grader struggled to impose himself when he joined the club mid season last year, but admitted he was finally starting to feel comfortable in the No.7 jumper.

"I had a couple of chats with Brownie during the week ... he's been great and he's put a lot of faith in me so it's good to repay him on nights like tonight," Soward said.

"I've had a bit of a chequered past where I've been in and out of first grade and he's just said we're going to keep sticking with you as long as you're learning and trying I'm not going to drop you."

The loss continued a poor road record for the Titans, who only won twice away from the holiday strip in their debut season.

Coach John Cartwright claimed the period after halftime knocked the stuffing out of his side.

"I was really confident at halftime, the game pretty well went the way we thought it would go," Cartwright said.

"They got a big block of football early in the second half and they came up and took advantage of their opportunities."

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