Sami steals win with sizzling try as Titans break drought
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A 78th minute try to Phillip Sami secured a thrilling 28-23 win for the Titans over Wests Tigers, the first win for the club in a remarkable 364 days.
The Titans last tasted victory at Suncorp Stadium on June 9 last year when they defeated the Brisbane Broncos.
A 76th-minute field goal by Benji Marshall appeared to have secured the win for the Tigers but the Titans regained possession from a short kick-off.
On the final play, Titans five-eighth Ash Taylor spun the ball to the left rather than going for a field goal. Winger Brian Kelly put the ball on the toe for fullback Sami to fly through and score.
It was the first win of the season for new coach Justin Holbrook and one he will be delighted with after Taylor's recent switch to five-eighth worked a treat.
Match: Titans v Wests Tigers
Round 4 -
home Team
Titans
15th Position
away Team
Wests Tigers
9th Position
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
The 24-year-old had a superb night with his kicking game proving the difference between the two sides.
The Titans showed great courage to twice come back from 10-point deficits while the Tigers will rue the loss as the one that got away.
The Wests Tigers spine came to the fore in the sixth minute. New dummy half signing Harry Grant split the Titans down the centre and found Luke Brooks in support.
Wests Tigers put in their entry for try of the year
From the play the ball, Benji Marshall hit Adam Doueihi with an inside ball, and the former Rabbitoh was too powerful and elusive for the Titans defence.
David Nofoaluma scored his fifth try of the season when he swooped on an errant Ash Taylor cutout pass to score under the sticks after just 12 minutes.
The momentum turned when Taylor made amends for his earlier error with a raking 40/20 kick which found Doueihi out of position.
Captain Kevin Proctor steamed onto an Erin Clark pass to score and give the Titans hope.
Taylor, with his confidence boosted, put up a towering bomb for a flying Anthony Don to soar high above Robert Jennings for his 77th career try. At 12-12 in the 27th minute, it was game on.
Moeaki Fotuaika was relentless at prop for the Titans in the first half, running for 138m from 14 powerful surges.
Sam Lisone (83m from 13 runs) and Jai Arrow (85m from eight runs) gave the Gold Coast much needed clout in the middle.
The Tigers started the second stanza with a piece of instinctive brilliance from Nofoaluma. The in-form winger was about to be pushed into touch when he lobbed a deft kick back across his body for Joey Leilua to score.
Sami scores the match-winner for the Titans
Another kick and a series of desperation passes came before Nofoaluma's perfectly-placed kick for Leilua.
Eleven minutes later the Tigers were playing ad-lib football again on the last play when Doueihi propped and lobbed a cross-field kick. Nofoaluma out-jumped Dale Copley to win the battle for the ball before touching down.
The Titans refused to go away and when a barnstorming Keegan Hipgrave scored his first NRL try the Tigers were clinging to a 22-18 lead with a quarter of the match remaining.
Hipgrave gets long-awaited first NRL try
Taylor's genius then came to the fore again. Enjoying the width of playing five-eighth, Taylor ran to the line and put an exquisite grubber through for Kelly to level the scores 22-22 and set up a thrilling final nine minutes.
Marshall put his hand up to be the hero but in the end it was Sami who conjured up the match-winning play to give the Titans faithful something to finally smile about.
Sami was elated and relieved to slam the ball down.
"It has been a long time coming so to win the game like that is a special feeling," he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Hipgrave. "I am excited. Everyone is so excited. I just came from the sheds and everyone is over the moon. We couldn't be more happy with that win, especially with the way we did it. We did it tough, but we got there in the end."
