Roar Guru
Greg Bird, Dave Taylor and Beau Falloon return as the Gold Coast Titans look for their first win of the season against the undefeated Newcastle Knights. Join The Roar from 6.20pm (AEDT) for live scores and coverage.
The win-less Titans will be hoping the return of the two origin stars and reigning club player of the year will be enough to register their first victory of 2015.
Meanwhile the Knights have showed tremendous character in consecutive weeks with come from behind victories over the Warriors and Cowboys.
Bird, Taylor and Falloon all come straight into the starting side, with Eddy Pettybourne and Kierran Moseley dropping to the bench. Prop Matthew White will be on the interchange bench after recovering from a hamstring injury, whilst Josh Hoffman will start at Fullback.
Agnatius Paasi, Lachlan Burr, Mark Ioane and Matt Srama have all been omitted from the side that lost 40-0 in Bathurst last weekend.
Rick Stone has named the same starting lineup this week, whilst Tyler Randell has been added to a five man bench.
The Knights back line has been firing in the opening matches of the season, particularly in the centres. Dane Gagai and Joseph Leilua both rank in the top 15 in terms of metres gained so far in 2015. William Zillman and James Roberts will have their hands full in a Titans back line that has mustered just three tries thus far.
Prediction:
The Titans will be nowhere as poor as last week with the return of Bird and Taylor. However, they completed just 49% of their sets and missed 29 tackle last week.
That’s too much of a job for three players to fix. The Knights have exceeded expectations so far this season, but have displayed a lot of resilience, and should keep their momentum going.
Knights by 6.
To find out whether the Knights can maintain their perfect start join The Roar from 6:20 (AEDT) to follow our live coverage, and remember to leave your comments as the game progresses.