Round 10: St George-Illawarra Dragons vs Gold Coast Titans

[RLfan]

Josh lewis is travelling as 18th man due to a few injury concerns, including hilder, so i wouldn't be suprised if josh gets a run.

Hey when did we get him? Because I know he was a Roosters player in round 1?

[Coaster]

Hey when did we get him? Because I know he was a Roosters player in round 1?

Last Sunday

[Steelers]

Hopefully this week the Titans won't see the spoils of their deal with the Storm and Steve Turner. Save Samau's great performance for next week

[tom91]

titans can win without campbell and bailey,,,they still got prince,rogers and laffranchi

[Titanium_BD1103]

Look forward to seeing how Samau goes... big wraps here, hopefully he doesn't get too overawed and can put in a solid performance, as this is his chance to cement a first grade spot.

Having that sort of speed on the wing should prove to be very useful against the speed of the Morris brothers...

Just hoping Webster can regain form soon, he's too good a player for us to have out for more than a week or so.

[Tamwelg]

Source www.gcbulletin.com.au

Lewis heads south, this time as Titan

18May07

AFTER only three days on the Gold Coast new recruit Josh Lewis yesterday packed his bags and headed back to Sydney in a good way.

The highly touted 21-year-old, who walked out of a two-year deal with the Roosters mid-season to join the Titans on Monday, was named by coach John Cartwright as 18th man for the Gold Coast's clash with St George Illawarra in Wollongong tonight.

Speculation has been rife the young five-eighth, who played 11 NRL games for the Roosters last season under Ricky Stuart, would slot straight into the starting side after inking the whirlwind deal just last Sunday.

As he prepared to board the plane yesterday at Coolangatta Airport, Titans coach John Cartwright rejected suggestions Lewis would slot straight into No.6 tonight ahead of Matt Hilder, but hinted it was not out of the question.

"He is very sharp and the sort of guy that we were looking at in the halves to give us strength and depth in that area," said Cartwright. "Matt Hilder can cover a lot of spots.

"It is just a matter of getting him in with the guys and making him feel comfortable.

"We will take him down and get him used to the routine when we travel. Then we will get him on the paddock next week somewhere."

Rookie Smith Samau, who played one game with the Melbourne Storm last year, will debut for the Titans on the wing after impressing in the Queensland Cup with Ipswich.

Samau's selection relegates New Zealand International and flatmate Jake Webster to the state league.

"Jake's form has been down a little bit over the past few weeks and Smith was going well," said Cartwright.

"I just think we need a bit of spark at the back of the field and I think he can provide that for us.

"We were flat last week and I haven't been happy with the back of the field work for the past few weeks so we need a bit of a change."

[DIEHARD]

Game is on!

What a fantastic surprise to see the Titans wearing their blue primary jersey!

I guess the Dragons wanted to wear Illawarra colours, which is great, so we choose to wear our primary as there would be no clash. Fantastic!

I'm back off to watch the game, I'll check in.

[Boofhead]

Peterson evens up the scores. Good run by Laffranci helped the cause.

Dragons really should have posted more points in the first 20. WE ARE COMING INTO THE GAME!

[DIEHARD]

6-4 Dragons.

Petersen just scored, you called it Coaster!

Come on boys!

[Boofhead]

Cooper... FFS.

[DIEHARD]

Oh we just blew a great scoring opportunity, but as you said, we are coming for them...

[Titanium_BD1103]

Halftime... we are down but we are not out yet...

It's frustrating watching this game as we are the better side IMO, we are carving them up on the left hand side and without Naiquma they are really struggling.

The Titans can't hold the ball ATM, 4 bombed tries and one lost ball that cost us and it's making the team frustrated and give away cheap penalities, which in the wind are getting the Dragons downfield.

I know we can win, we have shown we can in the 2nd half, the key is ball control and patience, it's a great game and it will be greater if we do that, because then the real entertaining footy we are showing can really shine.

[Titanium_BD1103]

**FULL TIME**


St George Illawarra Dragons 28

Tries: Peek, Payne, Nightingale, Sims, Naiqama
Goals: Naiquma 1/1, Head 3/4

Gold Coast Titans10

Tries: Petersen, Prince
Goals: Rogers 1/2

I have to say, I enjoyed the game tonight, but it was very frustrating... and overall I am disappointed we didn't win.

The Titans really were their own worst enemy tonight, when we had great chances we blew them with dropped ball and poor passing or kicking options and that lead to frustration, penalties and easier metres for the Dragons, and you can't gift teams like that.

Ball handling skills really need to improve and we have to start marking up in defense, too often tonight the Dragons ran through the middle and it was lucky we were tenacious and didn't let them get away.

Top stuff from Rogers and Samau who both impressed me tonight, as did Mathers and Minichiello... the rest were good, but overall the team didn't gel tonight and when it did, the final execution was lacking. There are some really positive signs there, but ATM, we need to do the basics right, get that sorted and we could once again be a really strong force to be reckoned with.

[Hoppy2007Dragons]

The best part of that game were both sides battling it out till the end, the dragons i thought bar some silly errors near the back end and some poor kicking decisions, put in one of their best performances.

The best part was our discipline, i only remember hornby giving a penalty on the play the balls.

We possibly could have put plenty more points on with head and woolford breaks falling short, but then the titans did the same early in the first half a good game overall and one both coaches should find very good positives from.

The dragons could be a future titans bogey team

[Steve]

It was a bit disappointing.
A few too many silly penalties given away, and if a couple passes had stuck, could have been a lot different.
The whole team seemed a little flat, I think Bailey's mere presence inspires them, and that was missing tonight.
On the upside, Mathers is starting to look more comfortable and more dangerous, and Samau I thought had a good first game.
Rogers is still looking dangerous aswell as Petersen.

Looking forward to Lewis coming into the side. Hopefully a week training with the team will help him slot in, tonight would probably have been too early and not have done much good.