"You have to feel for the Rabbitohs here -- they've been brave and have put everything into it. They thought they had it won"

Conversion kick is good

Souths 14 Titans 22

Game over.

CRAP!

HALFTIME: The even contest at Skilled Park sets up a great 2nd half to the match. The Rabbitohs with a slight advantage at the break.

41 min: Titans kick off to get the 2nd half underway.

41 min: Turn over to Titans right on halfway and a penalty

43 min: Penalty to the Titans tight on their line.

44 min: A mistake by Laffranchi cuts down a great attacking opportunity for the home side. Sledging going fulltime by the two sides.

47 min: GOAL LINE DROPOUT - Titans.
Capewell touches the ball in the in goal area just before it went dead.

47 min: Head clash between Asotasi and Geddes as the Titans launch their attack, once again the Rabbitohs defence holds solid.

50 min: The Titans hot on attack again as the game starts to open up. Outstanding defence by the Rabbitohs stops certain scoring.

53 min: GOAL LINE DROPOUT - Titans.
Once again the Rabbitohs have to defend their line.

54 min: TRY Gold Coast Titans
Quick plays and a long pass from Campbell out to Walker on the wing, and the Rabbitohs had no answer. Conversion attempt by Scott Prince unsuccessful.
Gold Coast Titans 10-8


59 min: An inside pass from Rogers to Walker almost gave the Titans another try, but pressure from the defence meant he lost it on the line.

62 min: TRY South Sydney Rabbitohs
A mistake by the Titans 30 metres out from the Rabbitohs line gave the visitors their first real opportunity of the 2nd half. Stuart busts over to score. Conversion attempt by Chris Sandow successful.
South Sydney Rabbitohs 14-10


65 min: Sutton kicks out on the full after the momentum seemed to swing a little way towards the Rabbitohs.

66 min: GOAL LINE DROPOUT - Titans.
The Titans hot on attack with a flying Rogers getting the ball out wide to Walker but Best saves the day for the Rabbitohs.

67 min: Best nullifies the Titans attack but knocks on 20 metres out from the Titans line.

68 min: Harrison knocks on close to the Titans line.

69 min: Knock on by Sandow 35 metres out from the Titans line. Titans rush to the scrum.

71 min: Desperation defence by the Rabbitohs who must be out on their feet. Possession to the Titans.

73 min: TRY Gold Coast Titans
Had to happen. After some outstanding defence, the hole opened up for Rogers who said thanks very much. Conversion attempt by Scott Prince successful.
Gold Coast Titans 16-14

77 min: The Titans happy to eat up a bit of time as Prince grubbers the ball over the sideline 20 metres out.

78 min: NO TRY - Rabbitohs
Looked to be the winning try for the Rabbitohs as Sandow crosses the line. The video ref rules the chip kick by Merrit in field was knocked on by Luke in the air, disallowing the try much to the relief of the Titans supporters.

80 min: TRY Gold Coast Titans
In his 150th NRL match, Laffranchi wraps up the match for the Titans Conversion attempt by Scott Prince successful.
Gold Coast Titans 22-14

Two controversial horrible decisions against Souths tonight -- and that was the game!

Make that three horrible calls, since they should/could have given a penalty try when Wing was tripped.

And once again, we had two very inexperienced refs calling this game. I hate the Sharks whiny coach, but he's right that if you have a two-man ref team, you should put one experienced ref with one inexperienced ref, not pair up the unexperienced ones together and the experienced ones together. That's just insane. But that's the NRL.

This shits me to tears.

Souths defended courageously, but put them selves into a position where they had to defend constantly inside their own 10 because they made some bonehead mistakes in attack AND because it seemed like every 50/50 call by the refs (who had a grand total of 16 games of first grade experience) went the Titans' way. Titans made a lot of penalties, but it was Souths who had at least two tries called back. And we had a couple of bad bounces go against us, too.

Both teams kind of drifted off right before the half, but it was the Titans who started the second half raring to go. And our players seemed to alternate making excellent plays with making dumb plays. That's not how a Top 8 team needs to play. We just weren't strong enough to make up for our mistakes this time.

Asotasi took a shoulder to the eye from Geddes -- I hope he's OK. And it sounds like Simpson is in a lot of pain from that rib injury. But they'll both have a couple of weeks to recover, since we have a bye next week.

Let's hope the team spends the next 2 weeks working on getting the attack back into shape to really contend, and dealing with the leaky defense on their left side.