Monday, May 16, 2011

Home ground no advantage for disjointed Gold Coast Titans against Manly




The last time the New Zealand pivot was at Skilled Park he was on the losing side in the Test match against Australia on May 6. He carried a corked leg into that game, but last night found it hard to describe which body part hurt the most.

"I'm sore all over. I think I'll spend the next two days in the (ice) bath," Foran said after the Sea Eagles ran out 16-12 winners.

The main culprit causing his pain was the Titans giant utility Sam Tagataese, making a return to the side after three matches, having been out of favour with coach John Cartwright.

He lined up Foran on three occasions and left him to get up gingerly from the turf after 110kg hit 89kg head-on.

"He'll need the two weeks off," said coach Des Hasler. "He's been playing wounded and he plays that really hard footy. They had a game plan to rush him and target him. But he keeps getting off the floor doesn't he?"

Skipper Jamie Lyon added a few words of praise: "We love having him in the side. He's tough and he's a real danger for other sides to defend against."

The Titans, who slipped from 14th to 15th on the ladder, are in danger of missing the finals after falling just one win short of the grand final last year. Manly is sitting pretty in third spot. "We're hurting where we are," Cartwright said. "They're a proud bunch of fellas and set a pretty high standard for themselves. We've won a lot of games over the last couple of years so it hurts to see where we are on the ladder.

"That's got to be the minimum in terms of effort we accept from now on. We've got to start winning games obviously and we're not talking about the eight too much at the moment. It's focusing on consistency of effort."

The Titans have played three home games in a row, but earned only one win from the set. Manly was missing two of its stars, prop Jason King (ribs) and Brett Stewart (hamstring). Hasler said King would be right to play for the Blues next week despite missing the last three club games.

The Titans lost centre Bodene Thompson (shoulder) before kick-off, which brought Tagataese into the fray.

Manly swept to a 10-0 lead in the first half, led 16-6 in the second and always seemed in control.

Two mistakes from representative players Harrison and Scott Prince led to Manly's first two tries. In the opening set Harrison's incorrect play-the-ball handed possession to the Sea Eagles. Daly Cherry-Evans spun the ball to the right, cutting out Stewart to find Jamie Lyon. His trademark fend and a flick pass to David Williams resulted in a try in 70 seconds.

Prince dropped the ball as he shaped to kick midway through the half and from the scrum, Manly headed to the left side to find winger Michael Robertson unmarked as Joseph Tomane moved up in defence too quickly.

Robertson scored a second after the break to become the Sea Eagles' leading try-scorer this year with eight from 10 games.

"When you're in a bad trot, little things go against you and compound the errors," Cartwright said. "You can handle losing games when that sort of effort goes in, but it's just the consistency of our football hasn't been there this year. If we turned up like that every week we'd be sitting a lot better than what we are. That's our challenge."

Manly 16 (M Robertson 2 D Williams tries D Cherry-Evans 2 goals)

Gold Coast 12 (S Prince E Tonga tries S Prince 2 goals) at Skilled Park. Referees: Gavin Badger, Adam Devcich. Crowd: 12,360.

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