PANTHERS MAULING
THE ill-disciplined Titans have come crashing back to earth after injuries, a Bryce Cartwright sin-binning and a classy Panthers team ended their winning run.
Last week they were Queensland’s best team, but yesterday the Gold Coast failed to maintain their early dominance with Penrith claiming a 35-12 victory at Panthers Stadium.
A Titans-bound Tyrone Peachey and his halves partner James Maloney ignited the Panthers in the second half, but it was the Titans’ errors that saw them fall apart after a promising start.
The Gold Coast opened the scoring through a barnstorming Dale Copley and had Penrith frustrated in the opening 20 minutes as they struggled to fight their way back in.
They eventually found their way over through Corey Harawira-Naera and James Tamou to go into halftime with a 10-6 lead.
The turning point came in the 51st minute when stand-in Titans captain Kevin Proctor was warned that any more penalties from the Gold Coast would lead to sin-binnings.
Former Panther Cartwright, in his highly anticipated return to Penrith, slipped up, much to the delight of the crowd.
Cartwright was sent off for 10 minutes and the Panthers quickly capitalised, with another penalty giving Penrith the chance to extend their lead by two before Peachey scored to ultimately seal the deal for his side.
The points continued to flow for the Panthers – and the Titans managed to nab a second four-pointer through Anthony Don – but it was Cartwright’s sin-binning and Peachey’s try that swung the momentum.
With the Titans conceding 13 penalties and making 10 errors – plus dealing with a multitude of injuries – they were their own worst enemy.
There is no reason for the Titans to panic but if they want to prove they are the real deal they must find some consistency soon.
They certainly had their excuses after they were hit by a string of injuries yesterday.
Already without skipper Ryan James (suspension), the Titans lost forward Morgan Boyle in the warm-up to a head knock while hooker Nathan Peats played just 27 minutes after succumbing to a rib injury and Copley battled a hamstring problem.