A man-of-the-match performance from Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow has given the Dolphins back-to-back wins downing Gold Coast by 16 points, placing pressure on the Titans after an 0-3 start.
Both sides had early chances inside the opposition's 20. But, it was the Titans who capitalised crossing for their first try in three halves of football. A quick play the ball allowed Brian Kelly to roam around the ruck which allowed him to put boot to ball and the flying Jaimin Jolliffe put the ball down to cross for the opening try of the contest.
The Dolphins were camped down their own end and made a mistake coming out of their own end when Jack Bostock lost the ball in contact. From that mistake, the Titans got their halves involved finding AJ Brimson who drew the edge defence to find Phil Sami for a surprise 10-0 lead.
With just over 15 to go, the Dolphins capitalised on a six again to cross for their first try. Isaiya Katoa digs deep into the line, finding Jake Averillo who found Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow who tips it on beautifully to Bostock who crossed out wide after being denied moments before. Jamayne Isaako converted to reduce the gap to six.
The Dolphins task got harder minutes later, when Max Plath was sin-binned for a nasty hip drop on Sami. However, they were able to hang on in the sin-bin period and nearly took the lead, but Mark Nicholls lost the ball short of the line. After absorbing a lot of defence early and dealing with the sin-bin of Plath. The Dolphins managed to lead at the half after a lovely second try assist from Tabuai-Fidow. It was an even better finish from Bostock for his second of the match sending Tanah Boyd down the Constrictor at Wet n Wild. Isaako nailed it from touch for a 12-10 lead at the half.
After a lull to start the second half. The Dolphins splashed and cashed into the try-line for the first time this half as the right edge combined to send Isaako away. He found Herbie Farnworth who crosses for his first try as a Dolphin. Isaako extended the margin beyond two possessions.
Following a mistake out of yardage by Kelly in the 62nd minute, Katoa straightened the attack up to find Tom Flegler off the ensuing set as he isolated and bumped off Tanah Boyd. He was able to get the ball free to the Hammer to score what looked to be the match sealer for the Dolphins as they led by 14. With just over 10 to play, Gold Coast began ran out of ideas and eventually the amount of defence began to take it's toll. From a dropout, a simple short pass from Jesse Bromwich found a flying Josh Kerr who crashed over under the posts and it quickly became 30-10.
Gold Coast got some consolation in the final 5 minutes. The halves and Brimson combined as they did in the first half to send Sami streaking down the sideline for his double which reduced the gap to 16 points.