A try to Titans centre Jesse Arthars wasn’t enough as the Burleigh Bears suffered a 20-14 loss at the hands of Redcliffe on Sunday.
Combining with former Titan Tyronne Roberts-Davis on the right-hand side of the field, Arthars was able to finish off a try in the 51st minute which sparked a Burleigh Bears comeback.
The home side were trailing 14-2 early in the second half but managed to bring scores level before a late Dolphins try to Izaia Perese secured the result.
It was Burleigh’s first home loss of the year and compounded by their Round 18 loss to Townsville it is also the first time the Bears have lost back-to-back games in 2019.
While disappointed with the result on the day, Lenihan is confident his side are only a few small adjustments away from rediscovering their very best.
“We’ve done a lot of good work to get ourselves in a position where we have an opportunity to finish high on the table,” he said. “We just need to get a little bit of rhythm and confidence back.
“To get it back to 14-14 was really good but we just faltered a little bit at the end when the game was in the balance.”
The Bears opened the scoring in the 12th minute through a Jamal Fogarty penalty goal, but it was the visitors who had the early running and the majority of possession.
They were rewarded with the first try in the 17th minute when a Tyson Gamble short ball put Aaron Whitchurch through a gap on the right-hand side.
Redcliffe went the length of the field on the very next set as they broke the Bears open on the right before swinging the ball out to the space on the left for Perese to score in the 20th minute.
A penalty goal just after halftime stretched the Redcliffe lead to 14-2 before Burleigh started to grind their way back into the contest.
Roberts-Davis went for a run out of dummy half in the 51st minute, drawing a handful of defenders before flick-passing to Arthars who scored out wide.
15-minutes later Roberts-Davis went from provider to receiver when he got on the outside of his opposite number thanks to a set play from the scrum feed.
A pair of sideline conversions from Fogarty brought the scores level, but the Bears were unable to complete the comeback with Perese’s left-foot step creating space for the match-winner.
