NRL Round 18 2024: Talakai sin-bin and referee blunder costs Sharks as Titans win 20-16

Cronulla will be forced to dig deep into their roster with two key forwards set to miss the club’s next game through suspension and injury.

The Titans are finally starting to fly under Des Hasler, with back-to-back wins. Picture: Getty Images

Cronulla’s woes are set to continue with bench forward Jack Williams facing a stint on the sidelines with a wrist injury as fellow forward Siosifa Talakai will miss at least one game after being charged by the match review committee.

Williams left Coffs Harbour wearing a brace on his wrist with scans to determine how long the 27-year-old will be missing for.

Talakai has been hit with a grade two careless high tackle charge following a tackle on Titans hooker Sam Verrills, which resulted in Talakai being sin-binned in the Friday night clash at Coffs Harbour.

Sifa Talakai gets sent to the bin for his tackle on Sam Verrills. Picture: NRL Imagery

Talakai is facing a one match ban with an early guilty plea or two matches if he unsuccessfully fights the charge at the judiciary.

Teig Wilton will replace Talakai in the forward pack and with Toby Rudolf, Jesse Colquhoun or Braden Hamlin-Uele among those who could come onto the bench ahead of Cronulla’s next game against the Tigers on Friday night.

REFEREE BLUNDER COSTS SHARKS

A refereeing blunder controversially robbed Cronulla of a vital full set of six when attacking Gold Coast’s try line in the Sharks’ 20-16 loss in Coffs Harbour on Friday night.

Four minutes into the second half, referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adasmki raised his hand for the fifth and final tackle when it was in fact tackle four.

Surprised that Przeklasa-Adamski had cut short the set, Sharks five-eighth Braydon Trindall bombed on what he thought was the fifth tackle with the kick defused by Gold Coast in-goal.

Play resumed with a Titans’ seven-tackle set.

Cronulla centre Kayal Iro was dragged down just a metre short of the Titans’ tryline on the fourth tackle when Przeklasa-Adamski committed the error.

Cronulla’s Sifa Talakai took tackle one of the set, Briton Nikora tackle two, Tom Hazelton tackle three, Iro tackle four before Trindall’s kick was caught in-goal by Gold Coast centre Brian Kelly.

The Sharks were filthy at being denied the extra tackle when hammering Gold Coast’s try line.

It was a decisive moment which left Cronulla one tackle short and, ultimately, four points short.

The NRL has been made aware of the blunder with officials to check video and audio of the incident on Saturday.

The call to Przeklasa-Adamski may have come from bunker official Ashley Klein.

MATCH REPORT: SHARKS SLUMP CONTINUES AS TITANS PRODUCE STUNNING UPSET

—David Lyall

Des Hasler’s Gold Coast Titans have won back-to-back games for the first time this season to climb further away from a wooden spoon they look destined to claim two months ago, heaping even more pressure on the hapless Parramatta Eels.

The brave Titans hung on under immense pressure to edge out Cronulla 20-16 in Coffs Harbour.

It was the Gold Coast’s fifth win in their last nine starts, continuing a resurgence of sorts after they began the season with six straight losses. They have now picked up a maximum of six points over the last three weeks, including a 66-6 hammering of the Warriors – their highest score in club history – before a bye last round.

The result also snapped a nine-match losing streak to Cronulla, the Titans last beating the Sharks in 2017 when their side included Jarryd Hayne, Konrad Hurrell, Ash Taylor and Ryan James.

The Titans are finally starting to fly under Des Hasler, with back-to-back wins. Picture: Getty Images

The Sharks had not even touched the ball when Titans skipper Kieran Foran opened the scoring in the seventh minute. Foran was back in the game not long after, sending Chris Randall over with a peach of a pass for the Titans to lead 12-0, an advantage they took into halftime after enjoying more than 60 per cent of possession off the back of 22 out of 23 completions.

Hasler was under enormous pressure after the competition’s first two months but is building a team that is prepared to roll their sleeves up in defence. Beau Fermor and Jojo Fifita typified that attitude with try saving tackles on the line in the dying moments.

Cronulla threatened to come back several times in the second stanza, but the Titans hung on for a well deserved victory.

The Sharks’ slump continues, with five losses in their last six games. Picture: Getty Images

Foran said winning successive games had been a goal for some time.

“Super proud of the effort today,” Foran said. “It was really important for us, off the back of that Warriors game, you know, we played so well, but if there’s anything that we haven’t done this year, it’s put back to back good performances in and it was important for us as a club and as a footy team to show that we’re heading in that direction, where we want to become a consistent team and show that we can put back to back performances in.”

The veteran half was proud of the effort of his troops when the Sharks peppered their line late in the second half.

“We’ve been working hard at it, I guess there’s been glimpses of it this year,” he said.

“There’s been periods throughout games that we’ve shown that resolve and that resilience, but like I said, it’s important now as a club that we take that step where we do it every week. It’s not just a one off. Today was a stepping stone in that direction where we want to be able to rely on our defence and do it each and every week.”

The loss for the Sharks, their fifth of their last six could see them slip out of the top four for the first time since round three. Most worrying for coach Craig Fitzgibbon is their sleepy start matches. The Sharks have not led at halftime since round eight when they thumped Canberra 40-0.

Fitzgibbon wasn’t panicking post match but certain acknowledged things need to change to get his side’s title aspirations back on track.

“It feels exactly the same as last week. It’s happened, to be fair, throughout the course of the year to us, quite a bit,” he said. “We’ve been addressing it, but at the end of the day, sometimes it’s fundamental errors and other times it’s discipline, but needless to say, it keeps happening so it’s a bit of a trend we’ve got to address.

“Sometimes you focus too much on it, a little bit too much energy going towards it, probably a bit uptight basically, I think. Our effort’s really good, our attitude’s really good. There’s a lot of parts to like about it, but you just can’t, you just can’t hand over that much possession and field position and expect to win.

“It’s not crucial yet, we’re still sitting in a strong position, but what is crucial is we’ve got to address it otherwise, it will be. There’s a lot of parts to like again, we’re not we’re not shying away from it. We’re going after it. We’re getting back in the fight after it but that’s a lot of possession to give up.”

David Fifita only showed glimpses of brilliance against the Sharks, so has he done enough to earn an Origin recall? Picture: NRL Imagery

MAROON’S ANSWER?

Pundits have been speculating that David Fifita will be recalled to the Queensland side for the State of Origin decider in 12 days’ time and the hulking Titans backrower showed glimpses of the reason why, without really breaking out.

Fifita was a surprise omission from Billy Slater’s squad for the first two Origin clashes but had responded with a series of strong displays over the last month. He is the competition’s leading tackle buster among forwards and will no doubt add plenty to the Maroons if he lines up at Suncorp on July 17.

Titans’ teammate Moeaki Fotuaika had even less of an impact and may be the man to make way for Fifita, pending the makeup of Slater’s bench.

The Titans are spoiled for choice at fullback as star No. 1 Keano Kini continued his scintillating form. Picture: NRL Imagery

KINI NO SNACK

When Keano Kini began the pre-season he may have been the Titans’ third-choice fullback behind Jayden Campbell and AJ Brimson but the lightweight speedster continued his scintillating form at the back.

Kini was in everything throughout, putting his body on the line and making 14 runs in the first half alone, for an 80-minute total of 25 runs and 205m.

At just 87 kgs, Kini looks like something massive Cronulla forwards Tom Hazelton and Tuku Hau Tapuha might eat for lunch, but the 20-year-old livewire again showed he is one of the most exciting young attacking players in the NRL.

NERVOUS WAIT

Sharks’ former Blues backrower Siosifa Talakai faces a nervous wait after he was placed on report for a brutal shoulder charge on Sam Verrills in the 11th minute.

A defenceless Verrills appeared to be wrapped up by Kayal Iro when Talakai hit him just under the point of the jaw with his right shoulder, snapping back the Titans’ hooker’s head with such force referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski had no option but to send him to the sin bin.

In Talakai’s favour could be the fact Verrills somehow remained on the field when an HIA appeared certain.

FORAN KEEN ON ANOTHER SEASON

Gold Coast Titans captain Kieran Foran has declared he’d love to go around for a 17th NRL season – if the club will have him.

Speaking after he led the Titans to a gritty 20-16 win over the Sharks in Coffs Harbour, where he scored a try and laid on another, Foran said his body was up to another year in the sport’s toughest competition.

Kieran Foran was a standout for the Titans, winding back the clock with a try and try assist. Picture: NRL Imagery

The veteran half, who will turn 34 next week, has played 294 NRL matches in stints at Manly (twice), Parramatta, the Warriors, the Bulldogs and now the Titans, where he is in his second season.

He has made 32 appearances for the Gold Coast and if he plays in the Titans’ next six matches, Foran will hit the magic 300-game mark in round 24 against the Dragons at WIN Stadium.

“I’ll go around again if the club wants me to,” he said. “I’m feeling healthy enough and enjoying my footy at the moment, so don’t see a point in putting an end point to it just yet.

“I’m really loving getting out there and competing with the guys each week and providing the club wants me to roll around again, I’ll certainly do it.

“The body still feels pretty good. It takes me about three or four days to get over games these days and start coming good at the back end of the week, but the club manages me well through the week, and I feel really, like I said, healthy and ready to go, coming into games at the moment.

“So, it’s just about backing that up and continuing to do it and if I if I can keep on top of my body physically, then there’s no reason why I can’t keep playing.”

Foran made his NRL debut for Manly in 2009 in his first stint on the peninsula and was part of the club’s 2011 premiership winning team where he was paired in the halves with Daly Cherry-Evans.

He played 147 times for Manly between 2009-2015 and a further 49 times at the club between 2021-2022. He has also played 30 times for New Zealand.