Trial 2: TITANS vs SOUTHS @ Coffs Habour

[quinn loves titans]

Thanks Diehard time to tell my eargerely awaiting dad.

[DIEHARD]

Courier Mail is Johnny on the spot with a match review.

Scott Prince gives Gold Coast Titans edge over Rabbitohs

THE finesse of Scott Prince guided the Gold Coast to a 28-22 victory over the new-look South Sydney in Coffs Harbour.

The Titans scored five-tries-to-four with halfback Prince and new recruit Greg Bird combining strongly as the club's new playmaking platform.

But the red and green era under new coach John Lang appeared full of promise as a second-string Rabbitohs pack out-muslced the Titans in the opening half.

As the national anthem played prior to kickoff, it was impossible to miss the imposing figures of Roy Asotasi, Michael Crocker, Sam Burgess, Dave Taylor and Ben Ross all standing in casual club attire.

None of the Rabbitohs new-look gun forward pack took part in last night's loss. And five-eighth John Sutton has only been ripping into full contact training for the past fortnight.

"All of our players are a bit underdone, Johnny Sutton has only been back at training for two weeks and we had quite a few blokes who didn't actually get to the game," Lang said.

"That's going to be our challenge early in the season. A number of our experienced players are going to come in with not a great off season behind them but I think it gave us a base tonight to work off."

After initially naming new recruits Burgess and Taylor, Lang opted to rest the duo last night but said the entire Rabbitohs roster with the exception of Michael Crocker would be available for next Saturday night's Charity Shield at ANZ Stadium.

NFL hall of fame legend Michael Irvin made a surprise appearance in the Rabbitohs dressing room as part of an extravagant motivational package put together by Souths owner Russell Crowe.

New coach Lang opted to play an entirely new-look side lined with rookies for the second 40 minutes, when Prince and Bird did the damage.

Gold Coast coach John Cartwright followed a similar game plan with his roster, resting the majority of his stars to start the second half before bringing back his top-line forward pack for the final 20 minutes.

The Rabbitohs made their intentions clear from the opening set when wide-running backrower Eddy Pettybourne whacked Gold Coast Titan Mark Minichiello with a vicious right shoulder.

The play set the tone for Souths to unveil a new defensive pattern, with the red and green roster rushing off the line at speed and hitting on suspicion. It is a system that had defensive coach Gorden Tallis stamped all over it.

With five months at the helm since Jason Taylor was sacked, the changes under Lang were subtle but smooth. The attack was more open to interpretation than structured around hard and fast rules.

The often-maligned halves pairing of Chris Sandow and Sutton appeared to demonstrate cooler heads under pressure, with the cheeky halfback dubbed the Aboriginal version of Alfie Langer showing some classy, off-the-top-of-his-head touches in the opening half.

A midfield chip and chase from the Rabbitohs no.7 had shades of vintage Langer all over it, Sandow regathering and kicking again for centre Beau Champion before Titan Esi Tonga intervened and raced 60m down field.

After dictating terms early courtesy of their new defensive structure, the Rabbitohs eventually cracked the Titans when Sandow held up a pass for hooker Isaac Luke who hit and spun from 10m out for the opening try.

GOLD COAST 28 (M Rogers C Toopi R Brown S Prince W Zillman tries S Prince 4 goals) bt SOUTH SYDNEY 22 (L Capewell 2 I Luke J Vaivai tries C Sandow 2 A Reynolds goals) at BCU International Stadium, Coffs Harbour. Crowd: 5500.

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

[quinn loves titans]

Awesome info i swear nrl and foxsports pick on titans they never put out a full report on their games.

[DIEHARD]

It probably takes a bit longer to get the news and vision from trial games to being on air in comparisons to an NRL Premiership game.

I hope to see some vision on Fox Sports News soon.

[titansrawesome]

i'm ready to laugh in those doubters and haters of the "pretty new boy" titans this year. If you have read the weekly adjudicator's verdict on foxsports.com.au you will see no one ever gives us a chance.

[DIEHARD]

Prince leads Titans to win over Souths

Gold Coast coach John Cartwright rated Scott Prince's combination with new five-eighth Greg Bird as the most pleasing aspect of his side's 28-22 NRL trial win over Souths at Coffs Harbour on Saturday night.

A week after playing for the Indigenous All Stars team, Prince showed the benefit of such a high standard hit-out early in the season by creating two tries with deftly weighted kicks to the left side before scoring on his own in the second half.

"I thought Bird grew as the game went on and Prince pulled the strings like he usually does," Cartwright said.

"That was probably the most pleasing aspect of the night the way those two worked with each other."

"I think when the games open up even more they'll be even more dangerous."

Souths coach John Lang opted for a second string forward pack, with Roy Asotasi, Michael Crocker, Dave Taylor and Sam Burgess all absent.

But the Rabbitohs forwards still more than held their own against an experienced Titans line-up.

Scores were level after 60 minutes before the Gold Coast scored two late tries in the space five minutes to give themselves enough breathing space over their plucky opponent.

New Souths coach John Lang admitted that he was impressed with the way the club's lesser lights handled themselves while making the step up to the top level.

"We had some young guys come on like John Kaifoto and he was coming off the bench for the Bears last year and quite a few of them made their debut at this level tonight and I thought it was a good step in the right direction," Lang said.

The crowd of 5,500 was brought to life by a Luke Capewell double but it was the controlling influence that Prince had over the Titans outfit that proved the difference between the two teams.

Source: http://www.nrl.com

[DIEHARD]

Titans down Bunnies in Coffs

The Jetstar Gold Coast Titans continued their winning pre-season form with a solid 28-22 victory over Souths at BCU International Stadium, Coffs Harbour tonight.

Before a crowd of 5,500, the Jetstar Titans recorded their second win of the pre-season following on from last weekend's 52-0 thrashing of an inexperienced Broncos outfit at Ipswich.

New recruits Riley Brown and Clinton Toopi both scored tries in their second appearances in Jetstar Titans colours while centres Mat Rogers and Joseph Tomane were also strong in the five-tries-to-four victory.

The Jetstar Titans led 10-6 at the halftime break and went on with the job in the second half, with captain Scott Prince leading his team through the entire 80 minutes in a new scrumbase combination with Greg Bird.

?It was nice to see the halves work well together,?? said Jetstar Titans Coach John Cartwright of the Prince-Bird combination.

?Rogers was good while he was out there, Tomane was good and the forwards did their job as they normally do.??

Prince described the performance overall as a little bit rusty but said it would give his side things to work on ahead of their final pre-season hit-out against North Queensland in Darwin next Saturday.

?We constructed a few good sets but overall I guess you would describe it a little bit rusty,?? said Prince, who was backing up after leading the Indigenous All Stars to victory last weekend.

Jetstar Titans winger Kevin Gordon delivered the first excitement of the night with an electric 60m run from his first touch with the football off a kick return in the opening minutes.

The Titans had other scoring chances soon after but were unable to turn those into points.

It was the Rabbitohs who put the first points on the board through hooker Isaac Luke. Halfback Chris Sandow added the extras for a 6-nil lead heading into the quarter time break.

Souths were denied further points when prop Luke Bailey pulled off a brilliant try saving tackle on fullback Luke Capewell.

Minutes later, centre Mat Rogers took advantage of a fortuitous bounce off a kick to score in the left corner, with Prince landing the conversion to level the scores at 6-all.

Rogers then put his body on the line and suffered a head knock in the process when denying centre Beau Champion close to the line.

A break downfield by flying Jetstar Titans winger David Mead then helped set up a try for Clinton Toopi in the left corner on the end of another successful cross kick.

The Rabbitohs hit back through Capewell to level the scores at 10-all but interchange hooker Riley Brown gave the Titans back the lead at 16-10 after scooting from dummy half to score.

Capewell notched his second try minutes later off a break by Jamie Simpson and Adam Reynolds converted to level at 16-all.

However, successive tries to Prince and Zillman helped the Jetstar Titans boot clear before a late consolation try to Souths? Junior Vaivai reduced the final margin to just six points.

Jetstar Gold Coast Titans 28 (M Rogers, C Toopi, R Brown, S Prince, W Zillman tries; S Prince 4 goals) defeated South Sydney Rabbitohs 22 (L Capewell 2, I Luke, J Vaivai tries; C Sandow 2, A Reynolds 1 goal). Crowd 5500.

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

[karnage]

"A midfield chip and chase from the Rabbitohs no.7 had shades of vintage Langer all over it, Sandow regathering and kicking again for centre Beau Champion before Titan Esi Tonga intervened and raced 60m down field."

Can somebody please confirm for me that this is correct. I did not know Esi was due back so soon. If this is right it is great news!!

[helcam4]

no it was kevie gordon, esi was a keen spectator,it was a amazing run ,he beat about 1000 guys.lol

[DIEHARD]

It's a bit hard to mistake Kevin for anyone.

[Sydney Titans Fanatic]

Hey guys sorry Some idiot decided to grab my phone when i was txting brrad and chucked my phone on the field...glad helen and cam could keep you updated...I have managed to get my phone replaced this arvo as soon as i got back into sydney for free because it was insured and the family optus bill is in creditt....So ill make sure i keep my phone in my pocket and keep you guys updated hopefully for the darwin game....

[quinn loves titans]

Hey sorry afgaing bout your phone is Diehard going up to darwin aswell?
?

[shamus]

I hope to see some vision on Fox Sports News soon.

Sorry Brad....No cameras to be seen. (Except for the bunnies, they had one cameraman of sorts there filming.)

[shamus]

I am unsure if anyone has created an injury list from the bunnies game so here goes with what I know.

Steve Rogers was knocked out with about 5 minutes to go leading into half time. But as he came back on late in the game he must be OK.

Nathan Friend was replaced by Riley Brown at half time who in turn was replaced again by Nathan with 5 to go due to a leg injury. It didn't appear too serious as although he was limping the next day he had no strapping of any sort.

Will Mathews has a black eye and stitches so I assume will be rested for the trial in Darwin.

Jordan Atkins has one serious leg brace on and looks like he will be missing for a while.

[shamus]

I should reword this (Jordan Atkins injury) as leg brace maybe the wrong term. I have no idea as to how to describe it but it was a heavily padded thingo that went from groin to knee.

But it didn't look good.