Match Details
Match Date	14th Jun, 2015
Opponent	Gold Coast Titans
Result	Loss 14-28
Coach	Des Hasler
Captain	Aiden Tolman
Venue	Gold Coast (CBUS Super Stadium)
Crowd	10,645
Referee	Jared Maxwell Chris James

Forget the party-town reputation for a moment. The Gold Coast might be the toughest mob in this year’s NRL. In a season where everything that could go wrong pretty much has gone wrong, the Titans notched up win No.6 with a 28-14 victory over the Bulldogs at Robina.

Footy during the Origin rounds can serve up fairly dull affairs, although both sides made sure this wasn’t the case on a picture perfect winter’s afternoon. The Titans came with audacious attack, the Bulldogs countered with some inspiring defence. In the end, the home side would get home in a bitter struggle that saw players from both clubs run themselves into the ground and future stars like James Roberts and Moses Mbye only bolster their rapidly growing reputations.

Roberts has become a big-time talent. He brings ridiculous pace and crossed for a double, taking his season tally to 13 tries, behind only Bulldogs winger Curtis Rona, who bagged a pair himself.

Mbye was good again in the absence of Origin half Trent Hodkinson, capping off his afternoon with the try-saver of the season after Roberts had set free Brad Tighe with a superb 25m cut-out ball following the break from his own half.

Mbye descended from the stands to put Tighe into touch but the Titans were relentless late to close out strongly and fight their way into the top eight.

‘‘It was an entertaining game. Both sides chanced their arm a little bit. It was one of those games where you couldn’t really rest in defence. They’re a hard team to contain,’’ Titans coach Neil Henry said.

Bulldogs coach Des Hasler was less than impressed with his team’s work. ‘‘Sloppy. Poor execution. Pretty careless with the way we went. The game was in the taking there for both sides. They capitalised on our errors. We butchered that game, which was disappointing,’’ Hasler said.

The Dogs faithful were in full voice early as Rona picked up a loose ball to scurry over after just four minutes.

Roberts would return fire after 10 minutes before Bulldogs prop Sam Kasiano bullocked his way over the line to make it 10-4 after 28 minutes. Leave it to Kevin Gordon to lift the spirits. The man who makes videos of himself riding a skateboard covered in a carpet (complete with Aladdin soundtrack) pounced on a cross-kick after the half-time siren to level scores at 10-10 during the break. From there it was all the Titans. The only bad news for the Titans was Kierran Moseley limping to the sideline with medial ligament damage.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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