Titans topple the Raiders and top the table

The Gold Coast Titans are sitting on top of the Telstra Premiership ladder after a hard fought 16-10 victory over the Canberra Raiders in front of 18,510 fans at Skilled Park tonight.

The visiting Raiders jumped out of the blocks to lead 6-0 after only a few minutes when Terry Campese stamped his class on the match with a pin-point kick for rookie centre Jarrod Croker to score the first try. The Titans took a little while to work their way into the match but began to steadily build pressure before a 21st minute try for Ashley Harrison reduced the visitors lead to only 2 points. The 6-4 halftime score seemed unlikely given the attacking abilities of both teams but that was also a fair reflection of the strong defensive efforts being applied across the board.

The Titans looked to take control in the second half when former Raider William Zillman crossed in the 54th minute, followed by a notable lift in intensity that was unlucky not to produce more points. Canberra kept themselves in the hunt with a miracle try to winger Adrian Purtell to level the scores at 10-10, but it was left to the home side to have the final say through their dynamic halves combination of Scott Prince and Mat Rogers - the latter scoring in the shadows of fulltime to secure the victory.

This was a well-deserved victory for the Titans, who would have relished their home-town support after a couple of long road trips in recent weeks. The Raiders certainly weren