Titans chasing finals thrust
Hayne shift to fullback on the cards
@EmmaGreenwood12 TITANS coach Neil Henry will thrust Jarryd Hayne back into his favoured No. 1 jersey in a bid to salvage the Gold Coast’s teetering season.
Hayne will revert to fullback following a four-match stint at centre when the Titans face their bogey side New Zealand at Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday.
Henry will finally bite the bullet and unleash his $1.2 million star after The Hayne Plane was near unsighted in string a few games together now to try to claw our way back up the table.”
The Titans led the Cowboys at half-time but were unable to work their way into the match, finding ways to hand over possession, with the defensive workload eventually telling.
“We found quite a few ways to give possession back to the Cowboys,” Henry said.
“You can’t beat teams when you’re expected to do that amount of defensive work.
“Our middle players had to do a tremendous amount of work in that first half which did take some energy out of us.
“But we didn’t really get any flow out of the game … or get any flow with our attack.
“It was one of those games that got away from us.”
The Titans’ defence has been a weak point all season and while it improved on Saturday – especially in the opening stages where they were able to hold the Cowboys out – the carelessness with which they often treated possession had clearly frustrated Henry and his captain Ryan James by the end of the night.
“The boys certainly hang in but we’re disappointed that we have to hang in because a lot of that hanging in is our own doing,” Henry said.
With 28 points the traditional benchmark to make the eight – the Titans scraped into the finals with 27 points last year – Gold Coast need a performance on Saturday that will help spark some momentum for the run home. the Gold Coast’s 20-8 loss to North Queensland.
Backing up from his tryscoring performance for the Blues in Origin I, Hayne had just four runs for 30m against the Cowboys.
Hayne, 29, has played left centre for the Titans due to the Gold Coast missing a host of backline talent and Tyrone Roberts performing admirably at fullback.
But with Hayne last week committing to the Titans for another year, Henry admitted it was time he made the move and showed some magic to keep the Titans in finals contention.
“He needs to be back there,” Henry said.
“As I’ve said before, it was straight after Origin with his legs (being fatigued so we kept him at centre).
“It suited us to keep him on that left edge for this game and Tyrone at the back.
“He didn’t get his hands on the ball too much. We didn’t have too much possession to get it to that side.
“He got the head knock and was out for another 15 minutes. I think he’ll be back there (at fullback) pretty quickly.”
It has been a poor few weeks in Titans colours for Hayne.
He struggled defensively in the club’s shock win against Melbourne, turned in a terrible performance in the loss to Manly with Origin selection looming and was one of many to battle in Townsville.
With the Titans languishing in 12th position at the halfway mark of the competition, Hayne’s quality is needed more than ever.