The Gold Coast Titans have kicked off their season with a hard-fought 24-18 win over the New Zealand Warriors at Skilled Park on Sunday afternoon.
Trailing by six points at half-time, the Titans turned things around after the break with star full-back Preston Campbell crossing under the sticks for the winning try with 10 minutes to go.
Looking to assert themselves early, the Warriors got off to the best possible start on eight minutes when James Maloney kicked high to the corner and big winger Manu Vatuvei rose high above his opposite number David Mead to take a clean grab out on the left and secure four points.
With the Titans looking rattled, Brett Seymour made no mistake slotting his side’s first conversion for the season.
The home side’s first half was marred by basic handling errors with New Zealand’s forward pack forcing Gold Coast to cough up the ball on countless occasions.
This nearly proved costly when Vatuvei intercepted a loose pass on the wing and steamed forward.
With the Warriors gaining 60 metres, Maloney found himself with the ball but was cut down inches short of the line after some desperate tackling from second-rower Anthony Laffranchi and young winger Kevin Gordon.
Pilling on the pressure, Ivan Cleary’s men had a second on 23 minutes when half-back Seymour executed a great chip to Kevin Locke out on the right who took it on the full beating Gordon in the process and crossing with relative ease.
As the Warriors skipped out to a 12-0 lead with Seymour’s second conversion, the Titans hit back from the restart with Nathan Friend going blind side right to Joseph Tomane who crashed over to score his first try in Titans colours.
Eight in from touch, Titans captain Scott Prince raised the flags with his first conversion of the campaign, relieving a mountain of pressure for the home-side.
With seven minutes left on the clock Vatuvei grabbed his second and the Warriors third, when he crossed easily on the left after rounding Mead and cruising past Tomane.
Continuing the Titans' woes, Seymour converted making it 18-6, with the organised Warriors halves successfully containing Titans firebrand Greg Bird, who struggled to assert his presence.
As the shadows of half-time loomed and after being dominated by the Warriors all half, Laffranchi gave the Titans fans hope of a revival when he crossed with 30 seconds to go after a slick pass from Prince.
The Titans captain then brought the deficit back to six from the spot; however the 18-12 scoreboard did little to reflect the Warriors first half dominance highlighted by Gold Coast’s 10 errors to the away side’s four.
After a slow tussle for the first 20 minutes of second, the Titans began to string their passing together and the match's momentum swung when Gold Coast stretched the Warriors defence on the right and Tomane fed a low pass to Mead who dived towards the line and just missed the corner post to ground.
It was then game-on as Prince made the sideline conversion to level the match.
Entering the final 10 minutes, the home side found composure and Friend produced some magic when he knocked a little grubber just out from the line to Campbell who took his chance and dived under the sticks to give the Titans the lead.
With Prince making it four from four, the Warriors rallied as the