The Gold Coast Titans have stolen victory from the jaws of defeat in an epic Easter Sunday clash where they scored an important 20-18 win over the St George Illawarra Dragons in an at times spiteful game.
It was a far from ideal start for both teams but in particular the Dragons who had Francis Molo sin binned for a high shot after just four minutes. Both sides were denied twice during the ten minute sin bin period with Alofiana Khan-Pereira denied twice once losing the ball over the line and then going into touch. The Dragons were denied twice by two forward passes after forcing an overlap.
It was third time lucky for the Red ‘V' when Zac Lomax outleapt the Titans defence to chase through a Ben Hunt bomb, plucking it out of the hands of Jayden Campbell to score. Lomax converted his own try to give the Dragons a 6-0 lead.
The Titans quickly hit back with Jayden Campbell creating something out of nothing when out of dummy half he found space before combining with Toby Sexton to draw in defends and take the ball back and score under the posts.
A David Fifita error short of the line saw the Titans denied a third time before a midfield melee that saw punches thrown but somehow missed by the bunker. The ensuing penalty to the Titans saw Tanah Boyd add a penalty goal to give the Gold Coast an 8-6 lead.
The Red ‘V' levelled the scores just before half time when Aaron Schoupp was penalised for a high tackle.
It was a poor start to the second half for the Gold Coast with ill-discipline leading to the Dragons first try of the second half when Mikaele Ravalawa had to clean up a loose pass near the sideline before just charging at the line unstoppably.
The Titans then started to mount pressure off the back of two successive penalties but a Ben Hunt intercept that was cleared despite being offside killed the momentum. Thankfully for the Titans they were able to hit back again soon after when Phillip Sami continued his hard to stop form of the game when he was able to get over.
It wouldn't be a day of NRL at the moment without an argument about the hip drop tackle coming up as it did again with Jayden Su'a penalised and placed on report for his lower leg contact. The Dragons continued to mount pressure having been stopped on five occasions as the Titans also found the pressure built by a number of decisions from referee Peter Gough.
A Dragons try to Ben Hunt looked to potentially seal the deal for the Dragons when he combined with Jack Bird to find space. The subsequent missed conversion from Zac Lomax was going to be crucial.
Regathering the kick-off the Titans went up the other end and were mounting pressure on the Dragons who looked solid until a misread in defence from Ben Hunt saw a gap open up for Toby Sexton who scored. Tanah Boyd's conversion gave the Titans a 20-18 lead.
The Dragons got one late chance from deep in their own end but a simple error from Ben Hunt consigned the Red ‘V' to defeat.
Next weekend, the Titans stay on the Gold Coast for a QLD Derby clash with the Broncos whilst the Dragons head to the nation's capital for a Sunday afternoon clash with the Raiders.