REMEMBER WHEN

Gold Coast Bulletin, Saturday, September 25, 2010

THE plan was speed. When the Roosters fell 23-14 to the Titans in Round 24, their coach, Brian Smith, told his troops to go out and beat these “old buggers”. To run them off their legs. It didn’t work that night.

They employed the same tactics and it did work, the Roosters claiming a grand final berth with a 32-6 win over the Gold Coast.

Spread the defence. Find the holes. When there were none, then go to the air.

Both Titans and the Roosters used their pace and ball skills from the opening whistle. However, while the opening was frantic it was the aerial battle that defined the early stages of the clash.

The Titans’ plan was to look for yards, with Scott Prince and Mat Rogers bombarding the Roosters’ right wing of Joseph Leilua for a positional advantage. However, they were not just chasing yards. Rogers spent hours perfecting his banana kick to Kevin Gordon’s wing. The pair were even at it before kick-off.

So it was expected that this ploy would come off. It did, in the opening minutes, with the young speedster almost scoring a sensational try over Sam Perrett.

It was Perrett who clinched the first four-pointer over the top of Gordon off a Mitchell Pearce kick.

The kicking plan also brought the Titans their first points, with Rogers again launching the ball, but from further out, kicking the ball past Leilua for William Zillman to pull off a speculator.

The Roosters realised early that Zillman was having trouble with his hands and targeted his wing – twice coming up with a knock-on.