The Gold Coast Titans face a tough challenge against the third-placed South Sydney Rabbitohs. Join The Roar from 7:55pm (AEST) for live scores and coverage.
The Titans sit in 12th, with a loss possibly seeing them drop as low as 15th, three wins outside of the top eight.
They welcome back two players from State of Origin with both Jarrod Wallace and Jai Arrow involved in Queensland’s 22-12 loss. The pair have been named to start by Garth Brennan with the Titans needing all the help they can get against a strong Souths pack.
The Bunnies are coming off a hard-fought win last week over the Sharks and have four players returning from Origin.
Greg Inglis, Angus Crichton and Damien Cook are all expected to back up from Origin, however Dane Gagai remains in doubt with a hand injury. Anthony Seibold has named a six-man extended bench as cover, with Robbie Farah or Mark Nicholls the likely players should Gagai withdraw.
The Rabbitohs have proven themselves to be the form side of the competition with wins over the Sharks, Dragons and Warriors in recent weeks as part of their five-match winning streak, and could move up to first should they win and results go their way.
Fatigue will be the biggest hurdle to overcome for the cardinal and myrtle, particularly for the four Origin stars who made the trip up from Melbourne to the Gold Coast on Thursday morning. A concerted effort from Sam, George and Thomas Burgess could prove the difference with Test spots up for grabs ahead of the Denver Test against New Zealand.
The Titans and Rabbitohs have met 15 times previously, with Souths dominating affairs for nine victories. The last encounter came in Round 15 of 2017, when the Bunnies produced a 36-20 victory at Olympic Stadium.
Prediction
The Rabbitohs will continue their strong form with a big win.
South Sydney by 14.
Join The Roar from 7:55pm (AEST) for score updates and debate in our live blog.
3_Hats SSTID 2014
Roar Rookie
Souths scored 3 entertaining trys while the Titans had 2 barge overs plus a kick that missed its mark but just lucky the Titans centre got to the ball first. Souths defence was really good and only errors due to the slippery wet conditions kept the Titans in the game. People can say what they like about the referee, yes they were pathetic but decisions did go both ways. The Titans were just strangling the Rabbitohs in the Ruck with holding down and second efforts. Both sin-binings were the result of persistent penalties in the Ruck due to repeated infringements. Souths had the ball stripped out 3 times but didn't receive a penalty. The Titans probably deserved a couple more also... This Ref Grant Atkins is Pedantic with Ruck Penalties, all Referees have their quirks on how they like to Referee as an example Matt Cecchin, he is a 10-Metre guy. There were ZERO Penalties for offside all night even though the Titans were jumping way early on many occasions. Souths were offside on occasions also. The bottom line is the Rabbitohs played with discipline, the Titans had to cheat in the ruck to try to slow down Souths play the balls and to shut down our quick up-tempo attacking style. It almost worked! Souths do have the fastest play the balls in the whole comp but the Titans were successful in slowing us down to AVERAGE PLAY THE BALL SPEED Souths 3.12s Titans 3.01s Using illegal methods so they were caned for it. Pure and Simple! The Rabbitohs played with discipline as we have had this ref a few times this season and he has caned us with Penalties and he has sent off 3 of our player to the bin 2 recently against the Warriors and one in Round 1 also. An extremely Sloppy and boring game but after all what is important? The 2 Points!
Concerned Observer
Guest
That might have been the absolute worst game of NRL I’ve ever had to watch and I purposely track the draws to figure out potential spoon-bowls The refereeing was appalling, mistakes noticed but not corrected, forward passes and absolutely atrocious play the balls just straight up ignored then applying no consistency at all between either team while applying penalties for absolute nit-picks of infringements. Souths were just good enough to hold on but Lordy they may have some work to do if they’re gonna be a feature. Should’ve been a simple win tonight but they refused to play with any degree of passion And the Titans... can’t say they were robbed because they never ever played well enough, some flashes of brilliance to keep them going but so many basic errors and ineffectual options chosen in attack. Hipgrave was deadset awful, just one of the worst displays ever put on by a player of allegedly NRL standard. Sin bin once - fair enough, but twice? Even if the ref is awful you’re doing something very wrong. Then to continue giving away penalties and then killing every chanc and half chance with dropped balls turns you into a one man coach killing machine. I reckon Brennan was almost begging that he’d need the head bin, just to get him off and put literally anyone else on
Chris
Guest
Grant Atkins had a bloody shocker in this game. Both refs missed a lot. made some bloody interesting calls. and really just loved the sound of their own whistle. Bonkers. I'm a fan of neither side.. but I love watching NRL... and the lack of consistency in this game... and the one-sidedness of the calls was pretty appalling. Definitely affected the outcome of the game.
Rob
Guest
Atkins is looking to get himself seen, probably to get higher honours in my opinion. He has been the worst I've seen at swinging games also. Absolute garbage sin binning. It's for repeat deliberate or professional foul offences, not I want to stamp some authority over the players after knit picking looking for something to penalise.
Craig
Guest
Absolutely dreadful game.
jamesb
Guest
I am not a Souths fan, but the one person that cost Gold Coast Titans the match was Keegan Hipgrave, not the referees. Mind you, Souths were diabolical.
Big daddy
Guest
Has to be the worst refereeing performance of the year. Even puts Klein to shame if that's possible. Atkins referred one side all night. Shame on the NRL for turning the game into a rabble.
Mike Gordon
Roar Rookie
Titans almost beat the dour bunnies with enthusiasm but for their indiscipline.
Riley Pettigrew
Roar Guru
That concludes The Roar’s coverage of Gold Coast Titans vs South Sydney Rabbitohs. It is a massive sporting long weekend ahead on The Roar. The NBA and French Open are in finals mode while the AFL and NRL seasons continue, and the Formula One heads to Canada. Rugby internationals begin this weekend headlined by Australia vs Ireland before the Socceroos play Hungary in their last warm-up game ahead of the World Cup. Aussie boxer Jeff Horn has a title fight against American Terrence Crawford in Las Vegas while in Chicago Robert Whittaker defends the UFC middleweight belt against Yoel Romero. I'll be back tomorrow night from 11pm (AEST) for the women's French Open Final between Simona Halep and Sloane Stephens. Thanks for following along.
E-Meter
Guest
That game was offensive to world sport.
Dogs Boddy
Roar Rookie
Pretty poor there. The Gold Coast were not allowed a fair shot in that last 10 minutes. Everything went against them. Scrappy game and Souths were lucky to get away with that one.
steveng
Roar Rookie
Gee the Titans should have won that, the Bunnies were absolutely shocking and they were the worst I've ever seen for a very long time. Feel sorry for the Titans and their fans.
Joe
Roar Rookie
Very poor reffing tonight. So much for home town decisions....everything went Souths way tonight and Titans were very unlucky to lose this one.
Dodgydragons
Guest
Souths supporters can’t complain about the refs tonight, what a joke!!!
Riley Pettigrew
Roar Guru
Roarers, what are your thoughts from the Rabbitohs' scrappy win over the Titans tonight? Gold Coast Titans 16 South Sydney Rabbitohs 18
JVGO
Guest
These refs need to understand that the more decisions they make the more errors they are making. It mounts up and in the end it results in a ludicrous fiasco.
Riley Pettigrew
Roar Guru
FULL-TIME The Rabbitohs have held on for a two-point victory in a very scrappy game and the cardinal and myrtle crawl into second position. Gold Coast Titans 16 South Sydney Rabbitohs 18
Riley Pettigrew
Roar Guru
80' Farah goes for the line, stopped by Wallace. John Sutton takes the tackle to wind down the clock and the siren sounds. Gold Coast Titans 16 South Sydney Rabbitohs 18
Rob
Guest
What the hell. Souths touched it last? Go ref touch football.
R N
Roar Rookie
The refs have been been pretty bad tonight! They haven’t got much right all night for both sides.