Timmins & Smith

Gold Coast boss Michael Searle will meet with Shaun Timmins in Wollongong today to discuss the former St George Illawarra lock joining the Titans on a one-year deal.

Timmins was set to retire from rugby league after his planned move to the Super League fell through when Castleford were relegated. But the Titans have offered the 30-year-old former Test player a lifeline, subject to a favourable medical report on his dodgy knees.

Timmins says he'll make a decision on whether to stay in the NRL or retire following a trip to Mexico and north Queensland over the next fortnight.

Down south, Melbourne hooker Cameron Smith will visit a doctor today to find out if a rib injury suffered in the Grand Final loss to Brisbane will cost him an Australian Test jumper.

Smith was yesterday named in the Australian Test squad to compete in the upcoming Tri-Nations tournament but is in doubt after suffering rib cartilage damage late in the grand final. The injury forced the Dally M Medallist from the field and was causing him considerable pain as the Storm players drowned their sorrows at the club's Princes Park training base yesterday.

It would be a cruel twist if Smith was ruled out by injury with the path to Australian selection finally cleared by the unavailability of Newcastle rake Danny Buderus. Buderus, who has had a mortgage on the Australian No.9 jumper since making his Test debut in 2001, pulled out of the tournament because his partner is due to give birth to the couple's first child.