The return of AJ Brimson sparked the Titans to a 20-18 win over the Warriors in an entertaining Saturday afternoon clash at Cbus Super Stadium.
Brimson took less than a minute to lay on the game's opening try for Beau Fermor and finished the day with two try assists, a line break and a line break assist in his first game at five-eighth since 2019.
After the early strike by Fermor the Titans extended their lead in the 15th minute when Jayden Campbell lofted a pass to Greg Marzhew who put a huge fend on Marcelo Montoya and raced away to score under the posts.
A mistake by Philip Sami handed the Warriors field position and Wayde Egan cashed in with a try from dummy half to make it 12-6.
Marzhew streaks away
Marzhew then chalked up his double in the 26th minute when David Fifita put him away with a quality long ball and the Titans looked certain to lead at the break before a bizarre try to Adam Pompey levelled the scores.
Ash Taylor put in a grubber which Sami attempted to cover up but the ball spilled free and Pompey pounced, although there seemed to be plenty of doubt about the put-down. Reece Walsh's conversion made it 18-16 to the Warriors.
Montoya hits back for the Warriors
After five tries in the space of 25 minutes to end the opening stanza the game then settled into an arm wrestle before Brimson put Sami away with a sweetly timed pass and the Titans led 20-18.
That's where the scoring stopped despite the Warriors' best efforts to pull the game out of the fire.
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Match snapshot
- Titans winger Greg Marzhew was unstoppable at times, finishing the day with 209 running metres, nine tackle breaks and two line breaks.
- Josh Curran got through a power of work in defence for the Warriors racking up 45 tackles for the match.
- The Titans' tradesmen Jaimin Jolliffe and Beau Fermor went about their business with no fuss, running for 261 metres and 55 tackles between them.
- Warriors prop Matt Lodge was physically sick during the first half as the heat took its toll and he played just 21 minutes for the day. Warriors trainers told Fox Sports the big man was 'overheated'.
Plays of the Game
It took AJ Brimson less than a minute to show that his switch to five-eighth will be a success as he split the defence wide open and found Beau Fermor in support for the fastest try in Titans history. After missing round one with a groin niggle, Brimson exploded out of the blocks and had the home crowd in a frenzy ... those who had found their seats anyway. Then with 22 minutes to play Brimson stepped up again to deliver a sweetly timed pass to Philip Sami for score to put the home side back in front.
Welcome back AJ
What They Said
"I don't think we won a tight game last year so I think it's great and in particular a credit to our forwards through the pre-season getting themselves in a better spot to be able to work harder. I thought Tino led that but everybody, Isaac Liu is doing that without people noticing, Kevin Proctor came on and did that for us today and that's what we need. We need that willingness to defend ... we were on our line a lot and we kept hanging in there, we just scrambled." - Titans coach Justin Holbrook
"We're past trying to develop players, we want to win games of footy and that start wasn't acceptable. Not a good enough start. A good effort to get back into the game and then hit the front like we did last week but then we had two young outside backs drop the ball with the line wide open just purely and simply because they didn't get deep enough. Again not acceptable, not now with where we want to be as a football club." - Warriors coach Nathan Brown
NRL Press Conference: Titans v Warriors - Round 2, 2022
What's Next
The Titans head to the nation's capital to face the Raiders and they'll have good memories of thier last trip to GIO Stadium - a resounding 44-6 win in round 16 last year. Experienced winger Corey Thompson could be some chance of returning from a broken hand but round four seems more likely.
The Warriors tackle Wests Tigers at Campbelltown Stadium. The last three clashes between the two sides have all gone the way of the Warriors - by two points, four points and six points.