The Gold Coast Titans defeated the Parramatta Eels 34-12 at Cbus Super Stadium, putting themselves in the box seat to secure a top-four spot at the end of the season.
The Titans have leapfrogged the Broncos into third position, with a victory against the Raiders next week ensuring a place in the finals for the first time since the club's inaugural season in 2021.
A dominant first half display and a hat-trick to their Origin star Jamie Chapman laid the foundations for the home side who claimed their third win on the trot.
Parramatta opened the scoring after a Rachel Pearson bomb was unable to be defused by the Evania Pelite with Kimberly Hunt jumping on the loose ball and grounding it in the in goal.
Kimberley Hunt Try
The Titans hit back five minutes later with Chantay Kiria-Ratu instrumental in setting up a line break for Niall Williams-Guthrie which provided the field position for the Titans five-eight to go over untouched after an impressive show and go.
The home side went back-to-back after a strong carry from front rower Jessika Elliston who picked out a returning Kennedy Cherington and carried her over the line.
The game had settled into an arm wrestle before the Titans would convert a midfield scrum with a slick movement to the left hand side for Kiria-Ratu to go over for her second of the afternoon.
Chantay Kiria-Ratu Try
The Titans extended their lead right on the stroke of half time through a short side play down the left edge once again with Lauren Brown linking up with Kiria Ratu who put over Jaime Chapman untouched.
After the resumption of the second half the Titans picked up from where they left off with another well worked scrum play in the attacking red zone with Chapman being brought back under by Lauren Brown to score her second of the afternoon.
The game settled into an arm wrestle in the second half before a Titans error handed the Eels field possession which they took full advantage of with Tyla Amiatu beating three defenders on her way to the try line.
Parramatta failed to find touch after being awarded a penalty which the Gold Coast took full advantage through a third try from Chapman who came back against the grain and brushed past two defenders.
Zara Canfield put the finishing touches on the result for the Titans as she picked up a loose ball after a one-on-one strip on the try line and diving over untouched, stretching the home side's lead to 22 points.
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Match Snapshot
- Titans centre Jaime Chapman scored the first hat trick in Titans NRLW history.
- Eels lock Kennedy Cherington topped the tackle count at 43 in her return from suspension.
- Titans held 57 per cent of possession and completed at 72 per cent.
- Both sides had 11 errors each
Play of the Game
Jaime Chapman claimed the first ever hat trick from a Titans player after a well worked move from Lauren Brown, who drifted across the field and dropped the ball underneath to Chapman who brushed past two defenders on her way to the try line.
Jaime Chapman Try
What They Said
We spoke about making a more complete performance today and going for that 70 minutes. The start is something we really wanted to be good at, again not quite there giving the first points away but I thought it was a much better performance this week. We will have a look at what the equation is going into next week, we wanted to get the win today and that was important, that's been done. Obviously the Raiders are strong and very hard down there so our focus will be getting into it tomorrow and looking at the game ahead. I'm happy for Chapo (Jamie Chapman), she had the HIAs and the niggles at the start of the season and hasn't be able to hit full fitness but this week at training she was looking really good so probably expecting that today." - Titans coach Karyn Murphy
Titans: Round 8
"We are probably struggling a bit with our execution. We tried hard but we were poor in our execution. I thought we were getting better at that sort of stuff but today we took a little bit of a step back. We got a lot of tries there where we found out overworking, over chasing and getting caught back on the inside. It’s been a common theme for us and as a young inexperienced team we got to learn those lessons and we haven’t quite learnt a lot of them so far this year. They got out and gave effort and played hard for each other but yeah we make football really hard at the moment." - Eels coach Dean Widders
Eels: Round 8
What's Next
The Gold Coast Titans travel to GIO stadium to take on the Canberra Raiders in what shapes to be the game of the round, whilst the Parramatta Eels also make the trip down to Canberra to take on the Cronulla Sharks.