Blinksportsnews247
The Titans, led by playmaker Lauren Brown, had a fantastic day as they defeated the Roosters 26–6, putting them back in the winner’s circle for the first time since Round 2.
The Roosters withered dramatically on a scorching day at Cbus Super Stadium that saw temperatures reach the upper 20s before kickoff. During the course of the 70 minutes, they committed 16 mistakes and missed 38 tackles.
The Titans saw no such issues, and thanks to a commanding display from her pack, which included a 187-meter sprint from Shannon Mato, Brown wreaked havoc with the ball in her hands. The Maroons player created havoc for the Roosters back three with her towering bombs, which resulted in multiple repeat sets, and she also scored two of her team’s five tries. While Taliah Fuimaono’s binning for a tackle caused Roosters captain Isabelle Kelly to leave the field for a high-level intercept, which she eventually passed, the hosts faced early hardship, but it only served to motivate them.
They were fortunate to get away with a Jayme Fressard effort on the very next set that was ruled out due to double movement, but a short time later the hosts opened the scoring through Emily Bass after a well-executed scrum play from close range.
Terrible handling through the first half saw the Roosters make nine errors and complete just half of their 14 sets, while on the rare occasions they were in attacking territory they lacked creative ideas to break the Titans down.
A try from Evania Pelite in the shadows of half-time threatened to be a back-breaker for the Tricolours, and when they dropped the ball on their very first set of the second half and allowed Brown to score their hill to climb suddenly became a mountain. Doubles followed for both Pelite and Brown, and with the latter on song with the boot the lead became 26 with 19 minutes still to go in the game.
With 13 minutes remaining, Tarryn Aiken spilled the footy, causing the Roosters to make a mistake even after they managed to cross the line in the second half.
In the end John Strange’s side avoided being blanked on the scoreboard thanks to a late strike from Sam Bremner.
Blinksportsnews247