Sharks grind out gritty win over Titans

Updated June 10, 2012 18:36:15

Cronulla centre Colin Best celebrated his 250th first grade appearance with a crucial second-half try as the Sharks snapped a two-match losing streak with a 22-12 win over Gold Coast at Shark Park on Sunday.

Best, 33, notched the 106th try of his 15-year senior career to give the Sharks a 16-6 advantage.

The Titans cut the deficit to four points with a converted try to centre Beau Champion, but hooker Issac De Gois fortunately regathered his own kick off the leg of a Titans' player to score a match-clinching four-pointer.

Sharks coach Shane Flanagan told Grandstand he was pleased with his team's desire to tough it out in difficult conditions.

"A few things ... the bounce of the ball, a few referee decisions and video ref decisions went against us I thought at different stages," Flanagan said.

"We could have compounded those decisions or errors from us in different stages and turned our toes up.

"But we dug in and I thought they toughed it out pretty well."

Flanagan said Champion's 59th-minute try should have been ruled out by the video referee Sean Hampstead - who took one look before awarding the green light.

"There was definitely obstruction there," he said.

"Whether they still would have scored the try is not the question."

The win consolidated the Sharks' top-eight spot and proved they could win without State of Origin representatives Paul Gallen and Todd Carney, as they notched just their second victory in five games.

In Carney's absence, halves Jeff Robson and Chad Townsend controlled the game well for Cronulla, clearly out-pointing the Titans in the kicking department.

Gold Coast was missing Origin players, Nate Myles, Ashley Harrison and Greg Bird, and was dealt another blow before the game when captain and half-back Scott Prince withdrew with lower back soreness.

And although Titans coach John Cartwright said he was pleased with his team's effort, he admitted things just did not go their way.

"We didn't do a hell of a lot wrong to put ourselves in that position," Cartwright said.

"We probably held the ball and completed as good as we have all year."

Cartwright said his team missed Prince's pinpoint kicking game.

"It was just ... there was some penalties and some six-to-go's and their good kicking game," he said.

"They came up with another half a dozen drop-outs and just put a lot of pressure on our defensive line."

The Sharks dominated the first half but were held to just a Jeremy Smith try until three minutes from the break.

Townsend, who was playing his first game of the year, converted his own try just before the break to give the Sharks a 10-0 advantage which accurately reflected their dominance.

Busy hooker Matt Srama dived over from dummy half early in the second half for the Titans, but Best's four-pointer gave the Sharks breathing space.

Cronulla: 22 (J Smith, C Townsend, C Best, I de Gois tries; C Townsend 3/4 cons)

Gold Coast: 12 (M Srama, B Champion tries; A Sezer 2/2 cons)

ABC/AAP

Tags: sport, rugby-league, cronulla-2230, nsw, robina-4226, qld, australia

First posted June 10, 2012 15:56:01

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Storm grind out win over Souths

Updated June 5, 2011 17:52:00

Greg Inglis has made a successful return to NRL football, but he was unable to inspire South Sydney to a victory over his former team Melbourne at the Olympic stadium.

Despite a wealth of possession in the second half, the Rabbitohs were unable to crack Melbourne's tryline, with the Storm holding on for a gallant 16-6 win.

Melbourne reclaimed second-spot on the ladder with its ninth win of the season, overtaking Manly on for-and-against by seven points.

Storm skipper Cameron Smith told Grandstand that after a nightmare season off the field last year, the Storm have targets on their backs in 2011.

"It was a really tough game, we found in our last three matches teams are really aiming up against us and we're finding it really hard to get across the line," he said.

"We were really happy with our start today but I thought Souths did a fantastic job, they really came at us and big Davey Taylor was running hard.

"He was hard to stop all day and our mate Greg Inglis was back from a month off footy but he played really well.

"It's always hard to come here and beat the Bunnies and I was really happy with the boys today."

For once it was not the Storm's big guns who were behind the win - with Melbourne's tries coming through rookie prop Jesse Bromwich, and unheralded utility Maurice Blair, before a 77th minute four-pointer to Smith sealed the win.

It was also Blair who did an excellent defensive job on Inglis and kept the Queensland and Australia star to minimal impact on the game.

Inglis, who had not played since injuring his hip in the trans-Tasman Test in April, was limited to just nine runs in an uninspiring display.

South Sydney had every reason to be upset in the 63rd minute when its Queensland hopeful Dave Taylor was denied his second try of the match and locking up the scores.

With Storm defenders hanging off him, Taylor reached out and planted the ball down on the tryline only to have referee Ben Cummins rule that he had lost the ball and decided not to send it up to the video referee.

"You were short and then you lost it," Cummins told Taylor before replays on the big screen showed the the play warranted closer inspection.

Taylor was easily South Sydney's best, and opened the scoring in the eighth minute when he leapt above Inglis and Blair.

But it was the Storm who took a 10-6 advantage to the break, which they maintained until full-time, thanks to two soft-tries at the other end of the field to Blair and prop Jesse Bromwich.

Blair was the beneficiary of some smart work by Justin O'Neill and Kevin Proctor - and a lackadaisical attitude by Rabbitohs' full-back Rhys Wesser - while Bromwich strolled through a non-existent tackle by Eddy Pettybourne to give the Storm a four point buffer at half-time.

Storm: 16 (M Blair, J Bromwich, C Smith tries; C Smith 2/3 conversions)

Rabbitohs: 6 (D Taylor try; C Sandow 1/1 conversions)

- ABC/AAP

Tags: sport, rugby-league, nrl, australia, nsw, redfern-2016, sydney-2000, vic, melbourne-3000

First posted June 5, 2011 17:04:00

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