Round 21: Sydney Roosters vs Gold Coast Titans

[Chaos]

The best thing for me tonight wasn't the score (as good as it was) it was the fact that the whole side played well.

Sezer has a great kicking game but his outside man don't get the ball unless chasing the kick.
Probably a good thing as Michaels only has pace.

[DIEHARD]

Terrific Titans outgun Roosters

GOLD COAST TITANS 36
(W Zillman 2, S Prince, J Idris, B Falloon, M Srama Tries; S Prince 5/6 Goals, 1/1 Penalty Goal)
Defeated
SYDNEY ROOSTERS 16
(T Arona, M Pearce, M Aubusson Tries; B Anasta 2/3 Goals)
At Allianz Stadium.

The Jetstar Gold Coast Titans have shown great team spirit to fight back from an early deficit to overpower the Sydney Roosters 36-16 at Allainz Stadium.

Down 10-0 and going backwards in the first 20 minutes, the Titans rallied to put on an attacking masterclass toward the back end of the match - keeping their finals hopes alive in the process.

It was all action from the very first seconds of the game with a short kick-off from the Roosters taking everyone off guard. The early trickery didn’t pay off for the Tricolours but set the tone for a very interesting encounter.

The attack continued from the Roosters after the Titans solid first possession. The Roosters spread the ball efficiently down the right opening up an opportunity, securing a repeat set off a nice grubber kick.

After weathering the early storm from the Roosters it was the Titans turn, and after after some swift ball movement made impressive metres. The Gold Coast men looked threatening with their first chance, but as was the story of the early running - the defence won the battle.

However, points weren’t far away, and on the back of dual penalties Tinirau Arona crossed for the Roosters. It seemed a little bobble just before the line opened up the gap for the lock forward who crossed the line just to the left of the uprights in the 12th minute.

A bit of Jamal Idris brilliance almost brought the Titans level soon after, when the big centre came within centimetres of grounding a ball which had been kicked through from the wing. Idris showed remarkable speed to come from almost 40 metres back, only to have the ball beat him through the in-goal area despite a desperate dive.

The missed opportunity was then compounded with a penalty to the Roosters as the Titans’ frustrations grew. The Roosters made no mistake with fantastic field position making the Titans pay, with Mitchell Pearce doing it all himself collecting his own grubber to take the score to 10-0.

Not to be outdone, Scott Prince reversed the situation, scoring straight back for the Titans with a lovely jinking run. Prince’s opportunity came on the back of a terrific dart by David Mead who got the Titans on the front foot. Prince converted his own try, taking the score to 10-6 after 30 minutes.

Backing up his earlier effort, Jamal Idris then stormed over the line in the next set to put the Gold Coast men in front. The right centre was unstoppable, breaking three tackles to set up an easy conversion for Prince with five minutes on the clock.

Both sides continued to throw the ball around in the dying minutes of the first half, but the score would remain stagnant at 12-10 to the Titans, setting up a blockbuster second half.

The second stanza started as frantically as the first, with a Roosters error opening up an opportunity for the Titans. After controlling the ball initially, Prince got the ball in his hands, double pumping for a hard-running William Zillman. Prince hit the upright with the relatively easy attempt to leave the scoreline at 16-10.

Only some fantastic Roosters scramble defence stopped the Titans extending their lead following their third try, with Anthony Minichiello fronting up to stop Beau Falloon on the break. The Gold Coast interchange scrambled through the line making considerable ground only to have the Roosters custodian stand in his way to keep his men in the match and thwart the Titans momentum.

However, the Titans, and Falloon, could only be held out for so long with the on-fire substitute increasing the lead when he barged over the line from dummy-half in the 56th minute to take the score to 22-10.

Needing inspiration, the Roosters then channeled their inner Harlem Globetrotter, throwing the ball around with reckless abandon, going through multiple hands before Mitchell Aubusson powered over showing impressive strength to take the score to 22-16. The converted try sparked the Tricolours as the match began to become increasingly tight.

A penalty on the line to the Titans saw a cool, calm and collected Scott Prince take the margin out to eight after Anthony Minichiello pushed Prince in the play the ball area. The penalty seemed to spark both sides, and after a minor melee, the tension in the match hit fever pitch.

Both sides, gave it their absolute utmost, with the Roosters denied a crucial try through a forward pass to open the door for a brilliant Zillman to score his double in the right corner. Matt Srama also got over the line with an enthusiastic effort to round out a 36-16 victory.

Top Performers
Best for the Titans were Aidan Sezer, Luke Bailey, Nate Myles and Scott Prince, while Best for the Roosters were Mitchell Aubusson, Martin Kennedy and Tinirau Arona.

Injury News
Gold Coast Titans: Greg Bird (Hamstring).
Sydney Roosters: None to report.

GOLD COAST TITANS
W Zillman, K Gordon, J Idris, S Michaels, D Mead, A Sezer, S Prince (c), L Bailey, M Srama, L Douglas, G Bird, M Minichiello, N Myles.
Bench: M White, B Ridge, L O'Dwyer, B Falloon.

SYDNEY ROOSTERS
A Minichiello, R Tuivasa-Sheck, J Leilua, S Kenny-Dowall, T Moga, B Anasta (c), M Pearce, J Waerea-Hargreaves, J Friend, F-P Nuuausala, A Guerra, B Cordner, T Arona.
Bench: N Seluini, L Tasi, M Aubusson, M Kennedy.

In the NYC match the Roosters beat the Titans 30-16.

http://www.titans.com.au

[karnage]

WOOHOO!!

After our first 2 months of football, to be in the 8 with 5 rounds remaining is a massive credit to the whole squad. We are a relevant football team and I will really enjoy the next 9 days as we build up to the HUGE game against the Bunnies.

I'm not singling anyone out after that - as Chaos said it was a true team performance!!

[DIEHARD]

Titans close in on top eight NRL berth

Gold Coast could find themselves in the NRL top eight by the end of the weekend and their 36-16 win over the Sydney Roosters on Friday night suggests they won't be making up the numbers if they do qualify for the finals.

Under plenty of pressure and down 10-0 early in the match against a Roosters team with nothing to lose, the Titans hung tough in defence before showcasing their ability with the ball - bagging four consecutive tries either side of halftime and winning the final 50 minutes 36-6.

Roosters forward Mitchell Aubusson scored in the 61st minute to cut the margin to six, but an all-too common moment of ill-discipline from fiery prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, when he gave referee Phil Haines a spray, allowed Titans skipper Scott Prince to kick the visitors away by eight with a penalty 13 minutes from fulltime.

When William Zillman completed a double and Matt Srama dived over in the final minutes, it was officially curtains for the Roosters' season.

The under-fire club had a crisis meeting during the week to air their grievances and it seemed to pay off early.

The home side threw caution to the wind and Tinirau Arona and Mitchell Pearce capitalised early for a 10-0 lead.

But a piece of David Mead brilliance in the 30th minute sparked a dramatic turnaround and the Titans rallied to take a 12-10 lead into the break.

They kicked on to keep their finals aspirations well and truly alive and importantly cut their points differential to minus 2.

Mead ran 80 metres from his own goal-line after leaping to take a bomb and from the subsequent play, Prince, who orchestrated the victory, darted through a gap to cut the margin to four.

Five minutes later giant centre Jamal Idris crashed over from short range, and, when Zillman and Beau Falloon consolidated the lead by crossing for the first tries of the second half, the Titans had the inconsistent Roosters at their mercy.

The Roosters repeatedly went for the short kick-off from restarts and chanced their hand but a third-straight loss is sure to propel rumours of player discontent.

Heading into the round, the Titans were one of five teams locked on 20 points, just one win behind the eighth-placed Wests Tigers.

http://www.nrl.com

[TITAN PETE]

Great win & it was an awesome team performance but I will single out Scott Prince for taking on the line & playing with a lot of confidence ! Brilliant game

Excellent kicking game & I think it is the main difference between the Titans today & 3 months ago...

Hang on guys this season is getting better every week

[teke]

Michaels extends his solid form.

Kev extends his passless season another match.

[TITAN PETE]

Michaels extends his solid form.

Kev extends his passless season another match.

& Mead let's another couple of high balls Bounce

What is going on there mate ..

[teke]

& Mead let's another couple of high balls Bounce

What is going on there mate ..

He did?

[Jamal's Hamstring]

I will eat humble pie. Prince and Idris played quite well. Great to see Matty cross!

[Smakked]

Just watched it, Awesome win by the boys tonight all played well Falloon was awesome i thought

[Supergoose]

Loved tonight. I reckon a heap of teams will come out all guns blazing like that trying to put us off our game early and our last round match against Manly will almost certainly follow the same script. To overcome the deficit and the ire of the refs early as the Roosters were repeatedly piggy-backed down the field was outstanding. I thought Ridge deserved more minutes, he played tight and tough tonight. Prince fantastic and Idris starting to provide a glimpse of his worth. Hoping the Bunnies smash the Tigers into submission and we get a good test of where we are at next week against a finals bound team. PS, Dragons were good tonight and our game against Melbourne is looking increasingly like a gimme, although Slater looked way off the pace but will be better for the run.

[Titanic]

Michaels extends his solid form/Kev extends his passless season another match.

These are amazing stats and being the David Middleton of our left side I suggest that it is intentional not to pass to Michaels because he can't catch and not to Gordon because he can't run at full stretch. They both can hit it up and provide fair kick returns but this is really our weakest area ... I won't even mention Michael's defence and we should all remember that he only ever plays a fair game every two weeks and this was that week so what about Souths?

[Julius Sezer]

great try ... great kick ... great win > after a very poor start.

I wouldnt say it was a poor start considering the defence that we showed to them. Throwing away penalties is pissing me off. But we won comfortably at the end.

[Julius Sezer]

Luke O'Dwyer throws away so many penalties FFS

[karnage]

There is one massive downside to this game that I just noticed. I had to bring T. Moga into my SuperCoach team in place of the injured Simon Mannering and he managed to score a staggering -1 points!! I'd have been better leaving Mannering in!!!

Mead did a real number on him.