Round 5: Gold Coast Titans vs Melbourne Storm

[titansrawesome]

rogers is a machine, reminded me of adam sandler on the waterboy hahaha

he had a really good defensive night and he made some metres from dummy half.

[bigjim]

Great game. Well done Titans but they could have won by more if they could just hang onto the ball. Great defence though.

Only one down side, I tipped the Titans to loose. I feel great though.

[quinn loves titans]

i tipped 50 with my friend on them to win i was getting almost sick the final 5 minutes what a nerve racking game

[TITAN PETE]

Great win & probably the clubs finest to keep the Storm scoreless for the final 51 minutes .... what ever Carty said at halftime was brilliant as we always looked like we were going to win even when we were behind by 12

Highlights from the match for me were

Rogers 2nd half defense Brilliant

Taga's 1st tackle of the match..how did that feel Cronk..Brutal

Harrison outstanding with his whole game , scores a try & plays on injured..

Laffranchi...if there's a better back rower in the comp at the moment i haven't seen him

Tomane got the points over FatBoy Ingliss

Nathan Friend outstanding match in defense & Attack...well deserved Man of the Match

The game was won with only 16 players as Riley Brown never left the bench

[hully gully]

Rogers.... what went on ? whatever fired him up I hope it happens next week aswell.
Great to see smith penalised for slow play, credit to the ref for that all in all fantastic win...

[titansrawesome]

why do we have riley bown in the side, he never plays

[Boofhead]

Massive props to Boof Laffranchi, best game he has had in a while. Keep it up mate.

P.S. Who is Greg Inglis?

[titansrawesome]

inglis should really be destroying defenses after his awesome year last year and him weiging 115kg

[kwigibo]

P.S. Who is Greg Inglis?

Some fat guy. Better shape up before origin or NSW can have him back.

[DIEHARD]

I think most people are still recovering from that epic victory. Possibly our best ever. Against the Premiers, World Champs and only previously undefeated team in the NRL.

This was a win for the believers! And didn't they turn out in force last night, was delighted to see 20,000 attend and that is with not too many Storm fans. We might get a full house next week, with the amount of Dragons fans in SEQLD and the ones that will travel. Get your tickets fast!

It certainly was a team effort. Rogers was awesome and he looked like a 25 year old out there.

Laffranchi was a revelation, he was playing with such enthusiasm, belief and agression. It was a sight to see him in open space, reminds me of 2008. He has KANGAROO written all over him.

Meyers and Bailey were also impressive. Zillman was safe as houses, at least ones in the Australian market. Well done Zillman.

Tomane, while he had errors, really stood up to the challenge. He answered his critics and he'll just get better.

Inglis was near non-existence, but as long as he appears for the Kangaroos and Maroons, I'll be happy.

We didn't see too much of the deadly foursome of Cronk, Smith, Slater and Inglis. We shut them down thanks to our fantastic defence which also seemed to have alot of venom and patience. Some of the hits out there were amazing. Great to see that going into our game.

The crowd was so vocal and it was ear piercing in the last 15mins as they urged the Gold Coast home. I really think they helped fuel the boys. And I was confident when they ran out for the 2nd half and saw them running towards the North towards The Legion.

Skilled Park aka The Fortress is becoming a true stronghold which must scare the crap out of teams travelling. It's a dream come true to have a venue that intimidates.

Congratulations ASH on your 200th game and 50th try!

And how about Carty!? Going berserk just like the rest of the 20,000 fans. He must love his job. They say coaching is a tough gig, but with a club, players and fans like the Titans behind him, it must go a long way to making it a sweet mix for him.

I encourage EVERYONE to get out to Skilled Park to support the Titans next week against the Dragons, the club needs you.

[DIEHARD]

Tomane answers bellyaching

LAST week Joseph Tomane's critics came out swinging when he was outclassed by a rampaging Willie Tonga in Townsville.

But they should at least be kept quiet for another week after the boom 20-year-old produced an inspiring effort against the game's most damaging ball runner Greg Inglis at Skilled Park last night.

Less than seven days after he was taught a lesson by Tonga, Tomane was instrumental in helping the Titans come from behind to upstage the premiers at Skilled Park.

After being 'shown up and made look silly' as he described it against the Cowboys, the blows kept coming for Tomane during the week when Storm assistant coach Brad Arthur described the young star as a 'selfish player'.

Arthurs' comments drew criticism from Tomane's new teammates, with Mat Rogers saying it was more a case of 'sour grapes' that they had lost such an exciting talent.

But if the stinging assessment was meant to unsettle the centre, it didn't with Tomane producing another solid showing.

The 101kg centre had a heavy involvement early in the contest cleaning up a sloppy pass from Storm skipper Cam Smith before helping defuse a neat crossfield kick, knocked forward by opposite Greg Inglis.

And he opened the scoring for the Titans sprinting 30m down the touch line, running over Storm fullback Billy Slater and holding possession despite a desperate attempt to knock it from his clutches by Inglis to touch down out wide.

Tomane was busy all night against his former club, making several strong charges

But importantly his biggest influence was in keeping Inglis quiet with neither men given many opportunities, with the forwards dominating the contest.

Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au

[DIEHARD]

Titans weather Storm and blow them away

THE Gold Coast Titans produced one of the gutsiest fight backs in their history to reel in undefeated NRL competition leaders Melbourne and cement themselves as a genuine premiership threat with an emphatic 20-16 victory at Skilled Park last night.

Without injured skipper Scott Prince for the second week straight, the Titans proved they were a force even without their star playmaker by coming from 16-4 down at half-time to topple the defending premiers.

Guided by the trusty boot of veteran dual international Mat Rogers and stand out performances by Greg Bird, Anthony Laffranchi and Preston Campbell, the Coast thrilled the vocal 20,083 Robina crowd and ensured a few more grey hairs for coach John Cartwright.

While Melbourne started strongly, justifying their favouritism with the bookies, the Titans were their own worst enemies in the opening stanza.

Coming into the match with a mantra to stop leaking tackles and making simple errors, the Gold Coast seemed to do the opposite at times.

The Titans made 18 missed tackles in the first 40 minutes, more than double that of the Storm, while making eight errors on their way to completing just seven of their 14 sets.

A barnstorming try from boom centre Joseph Tomane in his first game against his former club was the only highlight for the Gold Coast as Storm winger Anthony Quinn ran riot with three tries in the first 30 minutes to give the visitors a commanding 16-4 lead at the break.

There was no question the Titans competed fiercely but without Prince's kicking game seemed unable to build any sort of pressure against a Storm side still with the taste of Dragons blood in their mouths. But following a rev up in the sheds from Cartwright, the Titans came out firing in the second half.

Determined not to let the match slip from their grasp, the Coast threw everything at Storm.

The turning point of the match came when stand-in halfback Campbell reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out a towering bomb in the 45th minute.

The kick was reeled in by pivot Greg Bird 15m out from the Melbourne line, who then found hooker Nathan Friend in support on the inside to send lock Ashley Harrison over next to the uprights to score his 50th career try in his 200th NRL game.

When Bird did it all himself, barging over with 15 minutes remaining, the Titans levelled 16-16 thanks to the trusty boot of veteran centre Mat Rogers.

Rogers stepped up and slotted a penalty goal from right in front to hit the lead for the first time with seven minutes left on the clock, before slotting another right at the death to seal victory.

Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au

[DIEHARD]

Titans show true grit to down Storm

The Jetstar Gold Coast Titans displayed some old fashioned grit to score an upset 20-16 victory over premiers Melbourne Storm at Skilled Park tonight.

In an exciting match, 20,083 fans turned out to watch the Titans fight back from 16-4 down at half-time to tie things up at 16-all with 14 minutes remaining.

A penalty goal to the Titans in front of the posts with eight minutes remaining broke the 16-all deadlock and gave the Titans their first lead of the night.

Another penalty goal to the Titans in the 79th minute wrapped the game up, and handed the Titans their fourth win of the year.

Titans coach John Cartwright said he was pleased with his side’s composure to come from behind and win the game.

“To be behind by two tries against them you worry, but I wasn’t too worried about the way we were playing, a couple of balls weren’t sticking again, but it was just a couple of basic errors for their tries, some guys made some poor decisions in defence,” Cartwright said.

“I thought where you win games, we were doing well against them around the middle of the field, I thought we were holding our own considering the amount of possession they had.

“Our boys got a sniff at the ruck and I thought the amount of defence we had to do, I think it was 50 odd more tackles than them in the first half, I thought we finished the half better, and then our boys took it out in the second half.

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as a defining win, but tonight it was a fantastic feeling.

“To beat Melbourne it’s an enormous achievement, they’re machine like, their first half they put against us was precision.”

Stand-in captain Luke Bailey said he was pleased with the side’s defensive effort.

“It was probably one of the best (defensive performances) I’ve been playing in, coming from last week’s pretty poor effort,” Bailey said.

“I think even though the amount of tackles we did in the first half, there was still a good feel out there, our defence was starting to hurt the blokes and they were getting tired so that was inspirational for us to see and we just kicked on from there.”

It was the visitors who looked to have scored in the opening minutes of the game but a leaping Preston Campbell snatched the ball out of Billy Slater’s reach, and winger Kevin Gordon pulled off some desperate defence to stop opposite number Luke MacDougall just short of the line.

There was no stopping the Storm in the 13th minute after a set off good passes between Brett Finch and Greg Inglis created space for winger Anthony Quinn to cross, and with Cameron Smith converting the visitors were handed an early 6-0 lead.

The Titans hit back in the 19th minute through centre Joseph Tomane, who playing against his former club did well to hang onto the ball and get the video referees approval after Inglis attempted to rake the ball out of his hands over the try line.

Mat Rogers’ conversion bounced away off the upright leaving the score at 6-4.

Video Referee Steve Clarke was called on in the 22nd minute for the third time and awarded the visitors a benefit of the doubt try after Quinn won the scramble for a loose Cooper Cronk bomb and scored his second try of the night; Smith converted from in front of the posts to extend the visitors lead to 12-4.

Quinn then scored his hat-trick in the 29th minute after a cut-out ball from Finch created space in the corner, Smith’s kick bounced away off the upright leaving the Storm 16-4 up.

On the back of repeat drop-outs the Titans did well to withhold the Storm’s fury in the dying moments of the half to remain 16-4 down at half-time.

The Titans looked to be the first to score after the half-time break when Campbell put Sam Tagataese through a gaping hole but the big utility was pulled up inches short of the line by Slater.

The Titans made no mistakes in the 46th minute after Greg Bird pounced on a Campbell bomb and flicked a ball back inside for Nathan Friend to catch and put Ashley Harrison over to clock up his milestone 50th career try in his 200th game.

Rogers converted the goal to reel the score back to 16-10.

On the back of a penalty for time-wasting in the 64th minute the Titans were gifted easy possession, and pivot Bird took full advantage, barging his way through the Storm to score his first try in Titans colours.

Cool and collected under pressure Rogers converted to tie the game up at 16-all.

A penalty in front of the posts with eight minutes remaining handed Rogers the opportunity to split the deadlock, and he converted successfully to give the Titans their first lead of the match at 18-16.

A final ditched effort in the 79th minute by the Storm to get possession through a 20 metre restart drop-kick to find touch failed after Smith kicked it out on the full, which handed the Titans another penalty goal in front of the posts, which Rogers converted to give the Titans the 20-16 win.

The Titans will look to keep their winning streak at Skilled Park in tact when they take on the St George Illawarra Dragons next Friday night.

Gold Coast Titans 20 (J Tomane, A Harrison, G Bird; M Rogers 2 conversions, M Rogers 2 penalty goals) defeated Melbourne Storm 16(A Quinn 3; C Smith 2 conversions)

Source: http://www.titans.com.au

[DIEHARD]

ROUND 5 - CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICTURES FROM ROUND 5: TITANS VS DYOTM 2010 ON THE GOLD COAST BULLETIN PHOTO GALLERY

[DIEHARD]

LOL................