Titan Bryce back in Tweed outing
BRYCE Cartwright will make his return from a broken hand in the Intrust Super Cup, boosting Tweed’s chances of making the finals.
Cartwright broke his hand in a tackling drill while training with the Titans three weeks ago. He will line up against the Townsville Blackhawks at Hughenden in the Intrust Super Cup country round on Sunday despite having had surgery to insert a plate.
The former Penrith forward has had a horror year since linking with the Gold Coast late in the pre-season but Titans coach Garth Brennan hopes he can bounce back from his latest setback.
One silver lining to Cartwright’s injury was the Titans’ on-site medical facilities, which allowed him to be assessed and booked for surgery within hours, accelerating his return to the field by up to a week.
“It’s handy having that (Qscan) facility there, it probably did buy us a week,” Brennan said. “He was (out for) a similar sort of time frame as Jai Whitbread but the fracture was on the outside of Bryce’s hand, whereas Jai’s was the next one in, so we gave Bryce an extra week.
“But he’ll play for Tweed at the weekend.”
Whitbread also broke his hand at the end of June but was able to return on Sunday to make his NRL debut against the Roosters.
Whitbread missed playing for the NSW under-20 Origin side. “It was a last-minute thing, he wouldn’t have played if Jai Arrow had got through the Origin game OK,” Brennan said, dismissing any suggestion the Titans had pulled Whitbread out of the NSW side.