Gold Coast Titans fight off a late resurgence by the Manly Sea Eagles to win 32-20 at Marley Brown Oval.
MATCH DETAILS
The Titans were ahead 20-8 at half-time with the bounce of the ball favouring the Gold Coast side. Sea Eagles came firing in the second half with a comeback to close the gap 24-20 before two late tries to the Titans finishing the match 32-20.
FOUR POINTERS
TITANS HOLD ON
After a convincing last round win the Gold Coast side was able to hold on late to two-try lead at halftime to be victorious. The Titans side had a few fortuitous tries go their way through effort in defence allowing them to sneak home against a Manly team charging back. Inside the last 10 minutes, Ash Taylor was unsuccessful with a field goal before helping set up a pair of tries to close out the game and win by 12.
MANLY DEPLETED
The away side Manly were already depleted with two forwards having season-ending injuries in their last round while also star fullback Tom Trbojevic being ruled out from an ankle sprain. In the warmup Sea Eagles centre, Brad Parker who was to shift to the wing had pulled out late for Jonathan Wright to start adding to even more new combinations for the side to deal with.
JAI ARROW SUBLIME
Titans after a big loss in round 3 had made multiple changes to their forward pack with new signing Jai Arrow shifting into the starting lock position. Arrow has been a focal point to their side with the young forward claiming two tries while also racking up 166 run metres and 20 tackles in a superb individual performance against Manly.
GLADSTONE GAME A SUCCESS
Gold Coast moved their home match away from their city who are hosting the Commonwealth Games currently. The move to Gladstone was a huge success with not only a fantastic game but the benefits to the grassroots rugby league with teams getting involved in the community before playing.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
“Some gutsy performances out there and really proud of their effort.”- Garth Brennan
“We were our own worst enemy at times.”– Trent Barrett
“It’s a tough one to cop when you worked so hard to get back in the game.”- Daly Cherry-Evans
THE RESULT
Titans 32
Tries: Wallace, Arrow (2), Boyle, Don
Goals: Gordon 5/6 Proctor 1/1
Drop Goals: Taylor 0/1
Sea Eagles 20
Tries: J.Wright, Cherry-Evans, Kelly
Goals: Cherry-Evans 4/4
SQUADS
Titans: 1 Michael Gordon, 2 Anthony Don, 3 Dale Copley, 4 Konrad Hurrell, 5 Phillip Sami, 6 Kane Elgey, 7 Ashley Taylor, 8 Jarrod Wallace, 9 Nathan Peats, 10 Ryan James (c), 11 Kevin Proctor, 15 Max King, 13 Jai Arrow
Interchange: 14 Mitch Rein, 16 Bryce Cartwright, 17 Morgan Boyle, 20 Keegan Hipgrave
Sea Eagles: 1 Matthew Wright, 2 Brad Parker, 3 Dylan Walker, 4 Brian Kelly, 5 Akuila Uate, 6 Lachlan Croker, 7 Daly Cherry-Evans (c), 8 Addin Fonua-Blake, 9 Apisai Koroisau, 10 Martin Taupau, 11 Joel Thompson, 12 Frank Winterstein, 13 Jake Trbojevic
Interchange: 14 Jackson Hastings, 15 Shaun Lane, 16 Lloyd Perrett, 17 Jack Gosiewski
https://nothingbutleague.com/2018/02/21/2018-season-preview-gold-coast-titans/
