The Gold Coast Titans have pulled off arguably their best win of the season with an impressive under-dog victory against the Sydney Roosters on Monday Night at Cbus Super Stadium.
Titans Here to Play
The Titans came into the clash against the Roosters as $2.75 underdogs, following 5 losses in a row. Although the Roosters had only won 2 games before the clash, they appeared to be primed to hit form with the return of star players Mitchell Pearce, Jared Warea-Hargreaves and Boyd Cordner in the previous rounds. However, the Titans came out clearly ready to play, and headed into the half time break with an 8-6 lead. Their resilience throughout the game paid dividends in the 63rd minute when David Mead crossed to give the Titans an 8 point lead, and from there the floodgates opened up.
Titans Halves Click
The youthful Titans halves turned in their best performance as a partnership against the Roosters. Having played together in less than just 10 games, the combination of the 21 year old rookie Ashley Taylor, and 24 year old Tyrone Roberts picked the perfect game to hit their strides, with their combination helping the Titans snap a 5 game losing streak. The two almost linked up for a try in the early stages of the game when a brilliant dummy by Taylor saw him break the line within his own half, and he looked to find Roberts in support, however the two were both bizarrely brought down by Latrell Mitchell’s tackle on Taylor, which also took out Roberts legs, causing the ball to spill out of the collision. Roberts put the Titans into the lead with a superb long ball to David Mead in the final quarter of the game, and Taylor later capped off the Titans win with an excellent grubber into the goal area that bounced up for William Zillman to score.
Roosters Look Lost
Many fans were certain that the return of the majority of the Roosters squad would see them make a strong charge following a poor start to the season, however even with their stars on deck, the Roosters were very lacklustre against the Titans. The Sydney team stayed in the arm wrestle for the majority of the game, however with their abundance of star players, they should have been able to crack the game open against a much weaker Titans side on paper.
Finals Dream Over?
Considered top four favourites before a ball was kicked in early 2016, Roosters fans are now faced with the very real possibility that they could fail to even make the finals this year. The club is currently sitting in 15th place with a measly two wins to their name from the first 10 round of the 2016 season. Historically, teams have had to finish the regular season with at least 28 points to make the top eight, therefore including the four points they will gain from two byes, they will need to win at least 10 of their remaining 14 games in order to make the top eight. Based on their performance against the lowly rated Titans, it’s very hard to see that happening.
