Tigers play for pride to put lacklustre Titans out of finals race
THE final nail was hammered into the Gold Coast’s coffin as the Titans bowed out of NRL premiership contention with an embarrassing 26- 4 defeat to the lowly Wests Tigers last night.
Needing to win their remaining six games to book back- to- back play- offs appearances, the Titans crumbled in front of 11,516 at Cbus Super Stadium.
The 22- point defeat came against the team running second- last on the ladder who have suffered through a tumultuous season following the sacking of former coach Jason Taylor.
The Tigers were playing for pride, having lost nine of their past 10 games, but the finals carrot dangling in front of the Titans should have been enough for the Gold Coast to show some bite.
Instead they crumbled, weak defence and haphazard attack with little confidence seeing the Gold Coast fall to their sixth defeat at home this season.
With the Sea Eagles ( 26) and Dragons ( 24) at the bottom of the top eight, it is likely 30 points will be needed to qualify for the finals this season and the most the Gold Coast can now register is 28.
To make matters worse the Titans host rivals Brisbane on Saturday, a team they have traditionally struggled to beat.
With in- form duo Konrad Hurrell and Kevin Proctor sidelined with hamstring injuries the Titans lacked energy, direction and hunger.
Coach Neil Henry surpris- ingly made three changes to replace Hurrell, moving fullback Jarryd Hayne from his favoured position and splitting the successful halves combination of Tyrone Roberts and Ashley Taylor to bring Kane Elgey into the starting side.
The Titans’ left- edge defence was susceptible with Elgey back and Wests centre Esan Marsters capitalised in just the third minute.