Foran leads Titans to first win over enigmatic Warriors
Kieran Foran was the broadest-smiling Kiwi at Mt Smart Stadium after his Gold Coast Titans snapped a season-long losing streak against the maddeningly inconsistent Warriors.
The 33-year-old Titans skipper pulled the strings as the Titans clung on for a 27-24 win worthy of any Anzac rearguard action.
The Warriors dazzled in the first quarter and the last, but timorous tackling in between saw the Titans recover from 12-0 down to score five unanswered tries.
Two late tries saw the Warriors – who had two disallowed tries – come within a sniff of an unlikely and undeserved comeback win, but the Titans ultimately held out.
The Warriors, who started in 10th place, have now not had a win for three games and will slip further down the NRL points table.
Forty-five missed tackles – 30 in the first half – hardly helped the Warriors cause, and it must be worrying for coach Andrew Webster that they have conceded 79 points in the last three weeks.
Foran was a winner in his second successive game on Auckland soil after helping the Kiwis to a record 30-0 win over the Kangaroos in last November’s Pacific Cup final.
Now he has maintained his 70% winning career record against the Warriors.
The Kiwi stalwart got an assist for A J Brimson’s second killer try and generally provided a steady hand on the Titans tiller.
Despite the disappointing defeat, this may be the match where the Warriors faithful will, in the words of the Bob Marley song, remember Zyon.
With the Warriors at risk of a second straight drubbing, on came Zyon Maiu’u, a hulking 20-year-old front rower on his NRL debut. He got his big legs pumping to scatter Titans defenders and create the momentum for Dylan Walker to go from villain to hero with a perfect pass for Addin Fonua-Blake to score his second try.
The Warriors cut the deficit to three points when Rocco Berry soared high to beat Brimson in the air and dot down.
The bunker then denied Berry a double after Dallin Watene-Zelezniak had knocked on a high kick.
It was the second ruling against the Warriors after Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s aerial leap try was earlier ruled out.
The Warriors continued pressing for a winning try but were denied on the Titans line and the Queenslanders closed out a deserving win which had looked improbable after the first quarter.
Still smarting from their walloping in Wollongong, the Warriors came out of the blocks on fire, perhaps inspired by a stirring New Zealand Defence Force pre-match performance.
Early tries to fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad in his 100th NRL game and Addin Fonua-Blake had the Warriors comfortably ahead. But then they began to button off, conceding three tries before halftime and two more after the break.
The Warriors were caught ball-watching on the right edge in the leadup to Brimson’s breakout first try. Then Walker gave away a silly penalty when he booted the ball away at a play-the-ball. Tanah Boyd then exposed some slack Warriors defence.
Four Warriors failed to stop Titans impact man David Fifita lunge for the line and Boyd banged over a dropped goal on the halftime hooter.
After the restart, the Warriors coughed up their fifth straight penalty, then Rocco Berry knocked the ball on and was beaten later by Kelly, who put Khan-Pereira in.
Brimson’s second try seemed to make the Warriors’ task a bigger uphill battle than conquering Chunuk Bair until reinforcement Maiu’u changed the tempo.