NRL
Australia
National Rugby League (NRL) is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL competition (sometimes referred to as the Telstra Premiership for sponsorship purposes) is contested by 16 teams, 15 based in Australia and one based in New Zealand, and is the Southern Hemisphere's elite rugby league championship.
Canterbury Bulldogs vs Gold Coast Titans
Match scheduled:
Date: 18-06-2010
Time: 10:45 until 12:30
Round #15 - NRL Telstra Premiership 2010
Watch live rugby TV
The 2008 NRL season was the Titans' second in the National Rugby League. A major boost for the Titans was the signing of past Queensland representative Ashley Harrison from the Sydney Roosters.
The Titans played their first official match at their new Stadium, Skilled Park, against the North Queensland Cowboys with the final score being 36–18. Rookie Jordan Atkins became only the second person in the history of Australian rugby league to score four tries on debut, alongside Canterbury's Tony Nash in 1942. The sellout 26,974-strong crowd assisted the Titans in firmly establishing that they were a force to be reckoned with in 2008.
The club went on to hit top place on the NRL ladder for the first time after round 6. They managed to maintain top spot on the ladder all the way until round 11, when a loss to West Tigers saw them forfeit top spot to the Sydney Roosters, who led in points differential. At the conclusion of Round 14, the Titans were equal first on points, fourth on points differential, employing a perfect home record for inspiration. Despite facing a tough home stretch, the Titans placed admirably in their pursuit of an inaugural finals campaign.
One of the Titans' strongest points in 2008 was the form of halfback Scott Prince, who earned selection for State of Origin. However early in Game 3, his arm was broken, putting him on the sideline for the season. Subsequently the Titans lost four straight games.
They finished their season at 13th on the NRL ladder.
[edit] 2009 season
The Titans have secured four new signings for the 2009 season in Sam Tagataese, Matthew White, Jackson Nicolau and Raiders speedster William Zillman.
Similar to the Titans previous seasons, they find themselves on top of the competition ladder after six rounds sitting on ten premiership points along side their rivals the Brisbane Broncos. Early victories against the Canterbury Bulldogs and the Melbourne Storm away from home without skipper Scott Prince, silenced many of their critics who believed they could not win away from the holiday strip or without their veteran halfback.
Many of the Titans NYC side made their debut and turned into regualr first-graders, such as Esi Tonga, David Mead and Kevin Gordon. Kayne Lawton, Bodene Thompson and Selasi Berdie also made their NRL debut.
The clubs most successful season so far saw them finish in 3rd position, 2 points behind the competition front-runners St. George Illawarra Dragons and the Canterbury Bulldogs.
[edit] 2010 season
So far, the Titans have signed five new players for the 2010 season in Joseph Tomane, Marshall Chalk, Riley Brown, Clinton Toopi, Greg Bird and Steve Michaels
The Titans have lost a number of players for the 2010 season so far, including Ben Jeffery, Brenton Bowen, Chris Walker, Daniel Conn, Brett Delaney and Siosaia Vave.
[edit] Emblem and colours
Although they were accepted into the National Rugby League, they were without a name after they dropped "Dolphins" to avoid legal action from the Redcliffe Dolphins. The consortium aligned themselves with Gold Coast Radio Station Sea FM, and set up a competition in which listeners could submit possible names for the new team. This was shortlisted into ten names, which through online voting on www.goldcoastrugbyleague.com.au was shortened to three: Titans, Stingers and Pirates. Online voting continued, this time on the more-frequented NRL.com, with team being branded as the Gold Coast Titans on 21 September 2005.
After the team name was chosen, fans were given six jerseys to vote for on the club's website www.titans.com.au, with option 6 ultimately being successful.
[edit] Stadium
For their first season in the National Rugby League, the Titans played out of Carrara Stadium on Nerang-Broadbeach Road, while their 27,000-seat stadium known as Skilled Park through sponsorship in Robina, was being completed. Carrara Stadium was cited as one of the main reasons the Gold Coast bid was rejected in their first attempt to rejoin the NRL as Carrara only seated around 16,000, and was an oval.
Work on the new stadium commenced at the end of 2005 and the facility was ready for play before the start of the 2008 NRL season. The project is being managed by the same company behind the construction of Suncorp Stadium and The Gabba – Queensland's largest and most famous stadia, and Telstra Stadium – the Sydney 2000 Olympic Stadium. The new stadium has a capacity of 27,000 – 2,000 more than originally planned for.
[edit] Players
[edit] 2010 Squad
Although other players may play for the Gold Coast Titans during the year, all NRL clubs are required to select a top 25 First Grade squad at the beginning of the season. Below is the list of 25 players.
