Despite missing Wade Graham, Luke Lewis and Paul Gallen from their forward pack, Cronulla have showed plenty of defensive grit to beat the Titans 10-9 in drizzling conditions at Cbus Super Stadium.
It was a scrappy game in greasy conditions, but went down to the wire with both teams trading field goals inside the last four minutes.
First Titans’ halfback Ash Taylor levelled the scores at 9-9 with a one-pointer just three and a half minutes before full-time.
That looked like it would take the game to golden point, before his opposite number Chad Townsend slotted his second field of the game two minutes later to give his team the two points.
Townsend had earlier kicked a field goal a minute before half-time to give the Sharks a 9-2 half-time lead.
Cronulla scored their only two tries of the match in the first half. The first came in the 11th minute after Titans’ fullback Michael Gordon spilled a Chad Townsend bomb. Centre Jesse Ramien picked up the loose ball and offloaded to Valentine Holmes who scored out wide.
Edrick Lee scored Cronulla’s second try six minutes before halftime after being on the end of a Josh Dugan cut out ball that allowed him to score untouched in the corner.
The Titans scored the only try of the second half just four minutes in, when hard-working hooker Mitch Rein burrowed his way over from dummy half.
Both teams were willing in defence but struggled in attack in the conditions.
Cronulla will be happy to come away with the two points, especially with their depleted forward pack. It’s their second win in a row, while the Titans have slumped to their third straight loss.
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