Gold Coast Titans comfortably account for Wests Tigers

An NRL star has been linked with a high-profile move, but the team’s outing on Sunday afternoon could put those talks to bed.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 05: Jayden Campbell of the Titans and David Fifita of the Titans react during the round one NRL match between the Wests Tigers and the Gold Coast Titans at Leichhardt Oval on March 05, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

They cheered, they drank beer, they howled in the sun and then under a full moon.

And on a peach of a Sunday afternoon at Leichhardt Oval they watched Gold Coast Titans beat their team 22-12. It was the visitors’ fourth win in a row against Wests Tigers and their third in a row at Leichhardt Oval.

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Yet Tigers fans, who comprised nearly 100 per cent of the 14,667 crowd, made noise all match.

It was a very ‘Leichhardt’ day at the home team’s spiritual home with the eastern hill sold out, bathed in sunshine and thick with humanity.

They cheered the Tigers’ first set and the first penalty like so many Romans in tiger-skin garb.

When Adam Douehi opened the scoring with a penalty and Aaron Schoupp put the kick-off dead on the full, the noise in the Norm ‘Latchem’ Robinson Stand was thunderous.

And so it went for 13 minutes. When Daine Laurie caught a bomb there was applause. When Luke Brooks kicked into touch: applause.

When David Fifita ran into a gap off a Tanah Boyd pass and sent Philip Sami away for a 40m try there was the usual near-mute acceptance familiar to the Tigers fan.

Not sure there are many better sights in footy. #NRLTigersTitanspic.twitter.com/VZxwj3cDYE

— Lachlan McKirdy (@LMcKirdy7) March 5, 2023

Still, they continued to encourage their team, six months almost to the day that they booed them off at halftime in a 56-10 rout by Canberra Raiders.

Ten minutes later Sami went over for his second when he dived on an AJ Brimson grubber before being attended to by trainers after being caught high by leaping teammate, Alofiana Khan-Pereira.

Hooker and captain Api Koroisau replaced Jake Simpkin after 25 minutes yet the Tigers attack remained largely pedestrian or frenetic. And at halftime it was Titans by 10.

Less than two minutes into the second half Laurie let a bomb bounce and Sam McIntyre in jumper 18 plunged on the pill.

Doueihi kept the margin to 12 points when he scythed through and palmed off Fifita to score in the southwestern end.

Brent Naden made a mighty bust but Laurie took the pass in front. It was typical of the Tigers’ attack: potential for potency; too often a damp squib.

The Titans roared on Sunday. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Until it wasn’t. Laurie plunged over after sustained pressure but Doueihi’s missed conversion kept the margin at eight.

Laurie continued with the rocks or diamonds when he knocked-on on the halfway before Brimson ran through a hole from the scrum and sprinted 50 metres to land the killer blow.

Brimson was very good under the high ball while Tino Fa’asuamaleaui made 156 metres and Fifita made 192m from several typically hard charges on the left.

Titans prop Fa’asuamaleaui was put on report for a high shot on Laurie.

Moses poser

Was this the game that put Eels’ star Mitchell Moses’s future to bed?

The half-back’s manager and cousin Isaac Moses has been dragging out negotiations with Parramatta Eels with Wests Tigers’ multimillion-dollar, five-year deal still on the table.

Yet the 28-year-old halfback has said it often enough: he wants a premiership in his future. You wonder if he was watching the game at Leichhardt on Sunday, would five years be enough?