NRL: Broncos topple Titans with renewed six appeal

Sam Thaiday is wrapped up by the Titans defence. Photo / Getty Images

Broncos 40
Titans 32

Six weeks ago, the Brisbane Broncos were at an all-time low, following a 56-0 loss to the Canberra Raiders. Their record of being in the finals for an 18th straight year was also under threat.

Push fast forward. The Broncos now have five straight wins and last night they edged home over finals debutants the Gold Coast Titans in a thrilling end-to-end encounter.

The Titans were left sweating on the vagaries of the McIntyre system to see who they will face next week.

The Titans may have won 11 of 12 matches at home this season, including the round robin encounter with the Broncos, but all seemed lost at 30-10 down early in the second half. But a frenetic comeback saw them claw back 22 points including four tries from the 49th minute to get as close as 34-32 with eight minutes left.

It will be a match remembered for its endeavour with the ball in hand rather than defence, with 13 tries scored, seven to Brisbane and six to the Gold Coast. The Titans missed 29 tackles with fullback Preston Campbell the main culprit,letting seven escape. The Broncos slipped 30, with prop Nick Kenny and halfback Peter Wallace sieving four each.

Until the Gold Coast resurgence, Brisbane's dominance was plain to see with their cohesion and fluency.

The free running of centre Justin Hodges, the pinpoint kicking game of Wallace, the bullocking of second rower Sam Thaiday and monster 115kg teenage prop Dave Taylor once again masquerading at times in the centres.

The Titans had their own set of cameos, notably hooker Nathan Friend's needling work from dummy half and his knack for finding space. But the precision of their kicking game couldn't match that of Brisbane and they were let down by an inability to offload at crucial times.

The Titans did have the honour of scoring first through Campbell down the right thanks to space worked by five-eighth Mat Rogers and backing it up with slick passing from dummy-half Friend to the returning centre Chris Walker, who got it to Papua New Guinea winger David Mead for the finishing touch.

Brisbane countered with the try of the match to hooker Andrew McCullough in the 10th minute, when he received the last of three exquisitely timed passes from Hodges to Darren Lockyer to Wallace and eventually to him in a model for support play.

Attack and counter-attack proved the thrust of the game. Brisbane centre Israel Folau was able to haul in two balls from pinpoint Wallace kicks. This was complemented by a deft Karmichael Hunt right-foot grubber allowing 19-year-old wing Jharal Yow Yeh to meet the ball in a pincer movement over the line.

Taylor was relatively quiet until the 38th minute when he steamrolled through the Titans defence, somehow spared a mitt to free the ball to Folau, who threw an ambitious pass over his head which was picked up by an unmarked Lockyer.

The prop also sealed matters with one of three intercepts in the match, with Folau getting another to complete his hat-trick in the 63rd minute.

Titans winger Kevin Gordon snatched one more as part of his brace of tries, fellow winger David Mead also chased down a kick to get two and Brad Meyers went between the posts in the 54th minute, running on to a lovely ball from Friend to draw the score back to 30-20.

Broncos 40 (A. McCullough, I. Folau 3 tries, J. Yow Yeh, D. Lockyer, D. Taylor; C. Parker 6 goals) Titans 32 (P. Campbell, D. Mead 2, K. Gordon 2, B. Meyer tries; S. Prince 4 goals). Halftime: Brisbane 28-10.

What happens next

* The two top-ranked winning sides have this weekend off, while the two lowest-ranked losers are out.

* Scenario this weekend if the Dragons beat the Eels today:

Dragons and Bulldogs receive the bye

Storm vs Titans

Broncos vs Sea Eagles

Knights and Eels eliminated

* Scenario this weekend if the Eels beat the Dragons today:

Bulldogs and Storm receive the bye

Broncos vs Dragons

Eels vs Titans

Sea Eagles and Knights eliminated