There is no way to disguise the fact the Titans were outplayed by the Raiders in Canberra on Saturday. And one statistic that tells the tale most vividly is ‘metres gained’.
The Raiders forwards rolled through the middle too easily too often, with six of their 10 tries coming from busts one pass from the dummy half/scrum and another scored by the dummy half.
Canberra ran for 1791 metres to the Titans 1268 – over 40 per cent better!
The Titans had just three forwards who carried the ball for more than 100m, with Lachlan Burr the best with 119. The Raiders had six forwards carry for 100m or more with Paul Vaughan the best with 169.
For the second straight game the Titans missed 41 tackles and conceded 10 line breaks, and despite completing sets at a season best 82 per cent (23 from 28) had to make over 500 more tackles.
The interesting aspect of the team's second 40-point loss of the season is that, like against the Panthers in round 2 (40-0) they were behind by just eight points early in the second half before both times conceding 32 straight points.
Canberra’s 56 points and 10 tries equalled the worst defensive record for the Titans since coming into the competition in 2007 – matching the round 19 clash in Canberra against a Raiders team that included William Zillman (who scored a try) and was coached by Neil Henry.
Ryan James was the busiest and most energetic and aggresive Titan, topping the tackle count with 42, was third in yardage and played the 80 minutes, while Josh Hoffman made the most of his limited opportunities, topping the yardage with 174 metres and regularly beating the first tackle.
KEY STATS
TEAM
COMPLETIONS: Titans 23/28 (82%), Raiders 29/37 (78%)
TRIES: Raiders 10, Titans 6, Raiders 3
LINE-BREAKS: Raiders 10, Titans 3
OFFLOADS: Raiders 14, Titans 10
TACKLES: Titans 326, Raiders 257
MISSED TACKLES: Titans 41, Raiders 26
METRES GAINED: Raiders 1791, Titans 1268
PENALTIES: 5-all
INDIVIDUAL
METRES: Hoffman 174 (14 runs), Burr 119 (13), James 111 (13), Myles 106 (12), Don 102 (10)
TACKLES: James 42, Burr 35, Myles 34, Moseley 34, Douglas 34
LINE BREAKS: (3) Don 2, Moseley
MINUTES (forwards): Ryan James, Lachlan Burr 80; Nate Myles 55; Kierran Moseley, Dave Taylor 46; Luke Douglas 45; Eddy Pettybourne 39, Daniel Mortimer 34, Matthew White 30, Mark Ioane 25.
