The Titans plummeted to the bottom of the NRL ladder when defeated 18-12 by the Roosters at Skilled Park in Round 6 – incurring their fifth defeat in a row to mark their worst ever start to a season.
It certainly wasn’t pretty on both sides of the arena: in a mistake-strewn encounter the Roosters managed to overcome a woeful 55 per cent completions rate and 18 errors to grab the win. By comparison the Titans were only marginally better, with 62 per cent completions and 17 errors.
The Roosters were first to post points in the 14th minute when centre Shaun Kenny-Dowall caught the Titans’ marker defenders napping out of dummy-half, breaking through some flimsy tackle attempts in a 10-metre rush to the try-line.
The Gold Coast struck back eight minutes later when winger David Mead crossed for the first of his two tries on the right edge. That saw the sides head to halftime with a 6-all scoreline; however the deadlock was broken 12 minutes after the resumption of play when Kenny-Dowall crossed for his second try, latching onto a deft Braith Anasta grubber kick into the in-goal down the right fringe.
Just two minutes after the restart of play the Titans’ chances of victory looked shot when Anthony Minichiello scored under the posts off a smart inside pass from Mitchell Pearce for an 18-6 lead with 24 minutes remaining.
Mead’s second try off a William Zillman pass gave the home fans a glimmer of hope with seven minutes remaining, however that was where their challenge ended.
The Roosters were best served by halves Anasta and Pearce as well as fullback Minichiello who provided a game-high 24 runs.
Ashley Harrison (18 runs and a line bust) and David Mead (three line-breaks and two tries) tried hard for the Titans.