Misery continues for winless Titans following 26-10 loss to Warriors in Auckland
Pressure is building on Gold Coast coach Garth Brennan after the Titans officially crashed to the worst start in the club’s history with a 26-10 capitulation to the Warriors in Auckland on Friday night.
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Pressure is building on Gold Coast coach Garth Brennan after the Titans officially crashed to the worst start in the club’s history with a 26-10 capitulation to the Warriors in Auckland on Friday night.
Since their inception in 2007, the Titans have never launched a campaign with four consecutive losses but Brennan’s class of 2019 claimed a grim slice of history as the Warriors consigned the Coast to a dismal 0-4 start.
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Brennan was banking on the return of star halves Ash Taylor (quadriceps) and Tyrone Roberts (Achilles) to ignite a Titans side which almost upset big guns Souths in a gutsy 28-20 defeat last week.
But the Titans coach was left to lament another failure as Warriors half Blake Green and Dally M maestro Roger Tuivasa-Sheck combined superbly to leave the winless Coast floundering in the NRL cellar.
Having lost 14 of their past 16 clashes against the Warriors, the Titans never had control, trailing 12-0 at half-time before Tuivasa-Sheck’s solo try in the 50th minute threatened a rout at 20-0.
Titans winger Dale Copley (60th) and Anthony Don (64th) posted two quick tries, but the late riposte was futile as Tohu Harris crashed over eight minutes from time to deliver the final bullet.
“That performance wasn’t acceptable, it was ordinary,” Brennan said.
Just a month ago, skipper Ryan James said this was the most formidable Titans squad he had seen. He declared if the Titans missed the top eight, something was wrong.
Now something is disturbingly wrong. Alarm bells are ringing. And if Titans players don’t stop the rot soon - starting at home against Penrith this Friday night - their coach will enter the firing line.
Titans hierarchy activated a 12-month extension for Brennan in the pre-season, securing him until 2020, but hard questions will be asked if the Coast confront the ignominy of a second wooden-spoon in eight years.
Effort is not the issue for the Titans. Execution is the problem. They completed at a paltry 69 per cent to the Warriors’ 90 per cent.
“We knew we needed to play for field position,” Brennan said. “The error-rate killed us.”
Not even the comeback of Taylor, playing his first game of the season, and Roberts could bring cohesion to the Coast’s spluttering attack.
LISTEN! Pressure on the Clearys, Ponga’s missing spark and rich pickings for the Blues. Plus Matty’s confrontation with “The Animal”. Don’t miss this week’s episode of The Matty Johns podcast with Paul Kent and James Hooper.
After managing just 26 points in three games, the Titans should have been more potent against a Warriors outfit that leaked eight tries and 42 points last week against Manly.
Instead, they took an hour to score a point.
The visitors had four promising chances to score in the opening stanza. But then came the red-zone brain explosions: a silly Bryce Cartwright pass that hit the turf. A rushed Michael Gordon no-look, tip-on ball that was ruled forward.
That was essentially the difference. The Warriors aren’t world beaters but they had slightly more polish with their offensive shapes to leave the Titans wondering if the drought will ever end.
FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED
1. The Titans are wooden-spoon material. The code is crying out for a robust Titans team but with a dreadful 0-4 start they already face an early-season battle to climb out of the premiership cellar. The Titans last won the wooden spoon in 2011 and while they were confident of a finals campaign this season, Gold Coast’s squad must play with more precision, power and passion to simply avoid the bottom four.
2. The Titans’ class of 2019 has claimed an embarrassing slice of history, becoming the first ever Gold Coast team in the club’s 12-year existence to start the season with four consecutive losses. If the winless Titans don’t start winning games soon, it will leave their coach Garth Brennan fighting to save his job.
3. Gold Coast need to get sharper in attack. Last year, the Titans were technically poor in defence but now they have serious issues orchestrating points. After posting just 26 points in the opening three games, it took them an hour to score a single point on Friday night. They completed at a dismal 69 per cent and must show more composure in the red zone.
4. Titans prop Shannon Boyd needs to lift his game to support Jarrod Wallace. While Maroons prop Wallace was strong, amassing 149 metres, monster 126kg recruit Boyd managed just 48 metres and six runs off the bench. It’s not acceptable for a former Test prop earning $600,000 a season. He needs to lead their pack.
5. The Titans will be relieved key halves Taylor and Roberts came through unscathed returning from injury. Both players had some nice touches in the first half but drifted out of the game when the Warriors took control of the midfield.
NZ WARRIORS 26 (D Fusitua T Harris P Hiku R Tuivasa-Sheck tries C Harris-Tavita 5 goals) bt GOLDCOAST 10 (D Copley A Don tries A Taylor goal) at Mt Smart Stadium. Referee: Jon Stone, Peter Gough. Crowd: 13,995.
Originally published as Misery continues for winless Titans following 26-10 loss to Warriors in Auckland
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