Titans 30
Warriors 10
Yesterday the end couldn't come soon enough for the Warriors. The same applies to their season.
The sight of players milling around before eventually deciding to offer handshakes to their Gold Coast counterparts with 30 seconds still left on the clock said it all. Nothing to play for. Not yesterday, after the Titans had subdued a second-half comeback with ease. Not next week, or the three weeks after that. The Warriors are dead men walking. The dog days of August are here.
Not even the chance to run an eye over the highly touted Elijah Taylor materialised, the 19-year-old withdrawing before kick-off with a hamstring complaint.
The injury was fairly minor and Taylor should get a chance to make a belated first-grade debut before the end of the season, coach Ivan Cleary said.
Taylor's withdrawal left standoff Aaron Heremaia and hooker Lewis Brown, both given a chance in their favoured positions, as the main players auditioning for roles next season.
Heremaia was steady but unspectacular, while it was harder to get a read on Brown. His first stint coincided with an utterly dominant first 20 minutes from the Titans, with his main contribution of note a weak grab at Scott Prince as the halfback danced through for the Titans' second try.
Prince's conversion set the seal on a start that saw the Titans ease to a 14-0 lead. There was an element of fortune about their opening score, when the Warriors were curiously ruled to have played at a kick that rebounded off Russell Packer's back and Micheal Luck's head, allowing Anthony Laffranchi to score under the posts. But the Titans earned their luck by controlling possession, forcing four early goal-line dropouts.
It was a planned tactic coach John Cartwright hoped would drain any early enthusiasm the Warriors had for the fight. "I thought if we could do that and bore them out of the game, in the end they didn't have a lot to play for," Cartwright said.
In fairness to the Warriors, they couldn't be accused of chucking in the towel. But their only bright moments came from long-range counterattacks the Titans were able to contain.
But when the Titans started the second half playing exactly the way they shouldn't - giving away lazy penalties and turning the ball over on early counts - the Warriors found a way back into it.
Twice in the space of six minutes Stacey Jones supplied tempting cross kicks for Manu Vatuvei, the hulking winger completing his end of the transaction by climbing between Jordan Atkins and David Mead to score in spectacular fashion.
But just as soon as it materialised, the Warriors' comeback disappeared. Their reshuffled right side, with Lance Hohaia and Patrick Ah Van teaming up on the flank, always looked like a potential weak point.
Titans centre Mat Rogers won the jump for a Prince kick and Kevin Gordon had a straight run to the line. Rogers then beat Hohaia on the inside to score from a scrum, before adding a second by shrugging off Ah Van after a display of quick hands from the Titans.
Ah Van had a forgettable last 20 minutes, the game ending prematurely as he was bundled out over the sideline on the first tackle.
That neither side pushed for a restart said it all. For the playoff-bound Titans, it was a case of job done. For the Warriors, there simply wasn't anything to play for.
