Dominant Dragons topple Titans in Toowoomba 54-8

Ashley Taylor endured a horror homecoming as St George Illawarra destroyed his Gold Coast side in Toowoomba on Sunday.

The Dragons won 54-8 – with Tim Lafai and Matt Dufty both crossing for three tries – while Taylor was reported for tripping and twice kicking restarts out on the full in a nightmare outing at Clive Berghofer Stadium.

The Toowoomba product was also forced to pass a concussion test at halftime as the unbeaten Dragons scored nine tries to one in the city’s first NRL game.

The Titans entered the match with the league’s worst defence after missing 82 tackles across the opening two rounds and it didn’t improve as their right edge was brutally exposed by the red-hot Dragons.

“There’s probably a little bit of a lack of trust out there,” Titans coach Garth Brennan said of his side’s defence.

“You’ve got to be on and today defensively we weren’t … we need to be better than that but I don’t think they gave up.”

They produced the worst possible start when Kane Elgey knocked on from the kick-off, with fullback Dufty crossing inside 90 seconds.

Gold Coast steadied from there though, Taylor’s short ball giving Michael Gordon his first try in Titans colours.

They briefly looked the better side as Bryce Cartwright and Konrad Hurrell both spilled the ball with the try-line at their mercy.

But the Titans let the Dragons into the game with back-to-back penalties and Taylor’s errant boot as centre Lafai combined with Dufty for three tries in four minutes to close the half.

“We fought really hard in the middle part of that first half to get some domination … we had control from there,” Dragons coach Paul McGregor said.

A professional foul from Jack de Belin and subsequent sin-bin early in the second half should have given the Titans a way back in.

Instead former Titan Nene MacDonald rubbed salt into the wounds with a try in the corner and Ben Hunt combined with halves partner Gareth Widdop to toy with Garth Brennan’s side.

“Game management around that time (of the sin-bin) was really good; it’s pleasing when you can defend your line and turn that loss into a gain,” McGregor said.

The newly-formed halves duo did as they pleased as the Titans dropped off a staggering 45 tackles and looked lost when the Dragons spread the ball wide.

Both men put in kicks to set up late tries as the Titans’ defence clocked off, allowing both Dufty and Lafai to notch a hat-trick of tries.