Titans to hit the regions in 2018
THE Titans will take a premiership home game to both Toowoomba and Gladstone next April while their stadium is needed for Gold Coast Commonwealth Games sevens rugby.
The NRL will also schedule a match in Cairns, likely to be a South Sydney home match against the Cowboys, and four in NSW country as a welcome exposure to regional locations.
Premiership matches will be also held in the NSW centres of Mudgee, Tamworth, Bathurst and Gosford.
The seven games are the most in regional locations in any rugby league premiership draw and a gesture of interest in the hard yards being put in by the game’s officials and volunteers in the country.
Opponents and dates for the two Titans games at Toowoomba’s Clive Berghofer Stadium ( formerly Athletic Oval) and Marley Brown Oval, Gladstone will be announced next month by the NRL.
It is the first time an NRL match has been taken to either city, while several Souths games have been held at Barlow Park, Cairns.
“We have been talking to the State Government for quite some time about the impact on our games at Cbus Super Stadium while the Commonwealth Games are on ( from April 4- 15),’’ Titans CEO Graham Annesley said.
“Our objective is to look after our members and our corporates in the first instance.
“This situation has been brought about by the Commonwealth Games.
Annesley also said the Titans hoped a decision by the NRL on which ownership consortium will be sold the club was “only a few weeks away’’.