Titans take derby victory

NRL ROUND 20 RESULT

JETSTAR GOLD COAST TITANS 14
(D Mead, L Bailey Tries; S Prince 3/3 Goals)
Defeated
BRISBANE BRONCOS 10
(C Norman, B Te’o Tries; C Parker 1/1, P Wallace 0/1 Goals)
At Skilled Park.

The Jetstar Gold Coast Titans have posted a crucial 14-10 victory over local rivals the Brisbane Broncos at Skilled Park on Friday night.

In a low-scoring encounter, it would be an eight-point try which would prove to be the difference, with some resolute defence from both sides throughout the match keeping scoring to a minimum.

The Titans were absorbing plenty of pressure from the Broncos during the opening stages of the match, and were doing well to repel the early onslaught. A charge down from Matt Gillett almost led to the first points of the match, but the second rower was unable to gather the ball with plenty of space in front of him.

Both sides were finding it difficult to break the deadlock, but a strong run from William Zillman in the 19th minute seemed to spark the home side in attack. While they didn’t score on that occasion, it was a sign of things to come.

Soon after, Scott Prince collected a short kick, and running backwards, popped it up for Zillman, who sliced through some broken defence. He slipped a pass away to David Mead, who finished a spectacular opening try. Prince converted to give the Titans a 6-0 lead after 25 minutes.

Zillman was continuing to trouble the Broncos, and a try went begging when he broke through the line, but passed it forward to Steve Michaels. The Broncos turned things around to score moments later, with Gillett flying high to claim a kick, only to pass it out to Corney Norman to score. Making his 250th NRL appearance, Corey Parker converted to level the game at 6-all, and that is where the score remained at halftime.

Who was your Man of the Match? Vote in the Provan Summons Award here.

Tempers flared early in the second stanza, with a big hit almost leading to an all-in brawl. But cool heads prevailed, with the Titans benefiting from a penalty.

As the half wore on, points continued to be hard to come by. Both sides had good opportunities to hit the front, but didn’t come up with the play required. The Brisbane side forced Scott Prince in-goal in the 57th minute to go on the attack, but a forward pass handed the ball back to the home side.

A high shot from Ben Te’o on Luke Bailey got the Gold Coast on the front foot, and they would go onto score. Bailey crossed for his first try of the season, and was hit across the face by Josh Hoffman in the act of grounding the ball, with the Titans awarded an eight-point try. Prince kicked both to maximise this opportunity, giving the Titans a 14-6 lead headed into the final quarter of the match.

The Titans’ defence continued to handle everything the visitors threw at them, and a late try to Luke O’Dwyer would have sealed the game, had he been able to ground the ball. The Broncos had it all to do in the last three minutes, but Zillman defused a high ball to stop any chance of a late, come-from-behind win.

A try to Te’o in the shadows of fulltime closed the gap to four, but it would have no bearing on the final result, with the Titans recording an important win to continue their late surge to the top eight.

Top Performers
Best for the Titans were Luke Bailey, William Zillman and Nate Myles, while Best for the Broncos were Corey Parker, Matt Gillett and Ben Hannant.

Injury News
Jetstar Gold Coast Titans: No major injuries to report.
Brisbane Broncos: Justin Hodges (leg).

JETSTAR GOLD COAST TITANS
W Zillman, K Gordon, J Idris, S Michaels, D Mead, A Sezer, S Prince (c), L Bailey, M Srama, L Douglas, N Myles, M Minichiello, L O'Dwyer.
Bench: M White, R James, B Falloon, D Peyroux.
BRISBANE BRONCOS
J Hoffman, G Beale, A Glenn, J Hodges, L Maranta, C Norman, P Wallace, J McGuire, A McCullough, P Civoniceva, M Gillett, S Thaiday (c), C Parker.
Bench: B Hunt, B Te’o, M Dodds, B Hannant.

In the NYC match the Titans beat the Broncos 29-16.

Next Up:
In Round 21, the Jetstar Gold Coast Titans travel to Allianz Stadium to face the Roosters on Friday July 27 with kick-off at 7.35pm.