Gold Coast Titans face uphill battle to reach finals after shocking second half against Warriors
GOLD Coast hooker Matt Srama concedes the Titans' finals run is now all uphill after what is believed to be a record for poor handling in a half of NRL football.
The Titans completed only 31 per cent of their attacking sets in the second half against the Warriors on Saturday night as they let a 14-4 lead collapse into a 32-14 defeat.
Gold Coast's completion rate of only five of 16 plays is believed to be worse than either half of North Queensland's 36 per cent horror show against the Titans in round 1, which was acclaimed as the worst since data was kept.
The Cowboys were consistently poor across the entire 80 minutes that night whereas the Titans were what skipper Scott Prince called a "totally different football team" when they emerged after the halftime break with an extreme case of the fumbles.
The Titans finished with a 50 per cent (16 of 32) completion rate for the game, which is the equal second-worst of the season with the round 3 effort of the Wests Tigers (18 of 36) against St George Illawarra.
With upcoming rivals Canberra buoyed by their upset over ladder leaders Melbourne, the Titans not only drop to 12th on the competition table but find themselves two wins off the pace. They will need at least six, possibly even seven, wins from their last eight games to qualify.
"We're just outside the eight now and we really needed that win to stay alive," Srama said. "Without it we're going to have to push really uphill now because all the teams below us are starting to get some good wins together as well. Hopefully we come away with two points this week and then string a few together."
With Origin trio Greg Bird (pectoral), Ashley Harrison (broken toe) and Nate Myles (sternum) unlikely to play, prop Luke Bailey (ribs) and centre Beau Champion (ankle) also in the casualty ward, the Gold Coast face mission impossible heading to the nation's capital where they have won once in five visits.
Winger David Mead (pictured) is also expected to be absent, with the prolific tryscorer heading home to Papua New Guinea for his father Stephen's funeral this week. Mead produced a rare highlight against the Warriors with a diving try in the corner that left teammates stunned.
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