The Gold Coast Titans have secured their first win of the Dick Smith Auckland 9’s with a convincing 38-13 win over the Canberra Raiders.
After a disappointing start to the competition with losses to the New Zealand Warriors and Wests Tigers, the Titans bounced back to score a record-equalling highest scoring result with speedsters Josh Hoffman and James Roberts both scoring doubles.
Being unable to qualify for the finals, the Titans played a care-free and entertaining style of football to post seven tries and restrict the Raiders from progressing to the finals.
It was the Titans who opened the scoring with William Zillman slicing his way through the Raiders defence before basket-balling a pass away to Hoffman to score his second-try of the tournament before Daniel Mortimer added the extras to give the Titans a 6-0 lead.
The Raiders responded in the following set with Sisa Waqa palming his way through some soft Titans defence before racing 50 metres downfield to score next to the posts giving Jack Ahearn an easy kick to tie the game up at 6-all after three minutes of play.
From the resulting kick-off some quick-passes put Anthony Don in the clear down the wing who managed to put a kick back in-field for a flying Roberts to collect and score a bonus-point try to extend the Titans lead out to 13-6.
The Titans speedsters continued to cause the Raiders grief and when Roberts outpaced two Raiders defenders to grab his second-try of the night, the Titans extended their lead out to 17-6 going into half-time break.
The Titans continued their dominance into the second half with the run of momentum and they capitalised with Christian Hazard scoring a lovely solo-try to shoot out to a 21-6 lead with eight minutes remaining.
The Titans went back-to-back this time through a flying Kalifa Faifai Loa who finished off some great attacking play to score next to the posts to give himself an easy conversion and the Titans a 27-6 lead.
The Raiders managed to gain back possession and they took full advantage with Mitch Cornish doing it all himself to score a bonus-point try to reel the deficit back to 27-13 with four minutes remaining.
The Titans put an end to the Raiders comeback hopes with young half Kane Elgey supporting a great offload before showing great pace to score a bonus-point try to give the Titans an unattainable 34-13 lead.
The Titans finished the game in fine fashion with Hoffman grabbing his second-try of the game to secure the Titans the 38-13 victory.
Gold Coast Titans 38 (J Hoffman 2, J Roberts 2, C Hazard, K Faifai loa, K Elgey tries; D Mortimer 2 goals, K Faifai loa 2 goals) defeated Canberra Raiders 13(S Waqa, M Cornish tries; J Ahearn 1 goal, M Cornish 1 goal)