The Dragons defeated the Titans 8-6 at WIN Stadium in Round 16 last season to give their fans some joy after a dour six-week period that had yielded them just the one win.
The Titans had three scoring chances in the opening 20 minutes but came up empty-handed before Jamie Soward got the home team on the scoreboard on the half hour, delivering a lovely cut-out pass to winger Daniel Vidot who scored in the right corner for a 4-nil lead they held to the halftime break.
Some Aidan Sezer genius opened the scoring in the second 40, the five-eighth weighting a left-foot grubber to perfection for halfback Scott Prince to gather and score under the posts for the Titans to lead 6-4 at the 53-minute mark.
Silly penalties cruelled the visitors’ chances – with Nate Myles the villain on both occasions. First Myles was pinged for interfering with Dragons dummy-half Nathan Fien at the play-the-ball, with Soward slotting an equalizing goal, then the Titans prop was penalised for a high shot on Fien, with Soward obliging from in front.
However, the Titans had their chance to snatch the match and would have done so had winger Phil Graham not been denied a try due to Sezer being ruled offside chasing Scott Prince’s attacking kick in the lead-up.
The match statistics showed that although the Titans dominated possession with a 52 per cent share, nine incomplete sets hurt them dearly.
Meanwhile the Dragons defended stoutly, making 47 more tackles on the night and missing just 13 tackles to the opposition’s 25. They attacked with purpose, too, making four unanswered line-breaks and dominating territory 1538 metres to 1359 metres.