David Fifita of the Titans celebrates his try during the round eight NRL match between New Zealand Warriors and Gold Coast Titans. Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images
The Anzac Day curse remains for the Warriors, after going down 27-24 to bottom of the table Gold Coast Titans at Go Media Mt Smart Stadium on Thursday. They haven't won a fixture on Anzac Day for over a decade, despite having hosting rights this year.
Despite another strong opening 20 minutes from the Warriors, which saw two quick tries from Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad in his 100th NRL game and Addin Fonua-Blake, they let the game slip from their grasp.
The Titans came flying back, racking up three consecutive tries and iced it off with a Tanah Boyd field goal to go into sheds with a 19-12 lead at halftime
Things started looking grim for the home side at the start of the second half after the Titans capitalised through Alofiana Khan-Pereira scoring straight away. Fullback AJ Brimson then scored his second, making it five unanswered tries to the Titans.
It seemed that momentum had swung back the way of the Warriors when Roger Tuivasa-Sheck desperately climbed up to clutch a Shaun Johnson bomb, but it was quickly overturned following a Wayde Egan error picked up in the play of the ball.
The Warriors began their fight back racking up quick consecutive tries through Fonua-Blake and Rocco Berry, but the Titans held on desperately defending their line having an answer for everything the Warriors through at them.
In the end it wasn't enough as yet another display of poor discipline and errors at crucial times conspired to hand them a disappointing defeat.
"I feel gutted for the boys because they're not playing the way they want to play," Warriors coach Andrew Webster said.
"It's individual moments that are killing us. 12-nil up and then missed tackles by individuals. We're just losing the ruck in defence.
"We made it really hard for ourselves but I'm not taking anything away from the Titans."
"We had lots of opportunities to score but we didn't execute enough and we shouldn't have to chase like that."
Webster said he's ready for the challenge to turn their fortunes around.
"We've lost two in a row, it's not 10 in a row," he said.
"We've got to get back to being us and we're not at the moment."
The game was played in front of another impressive 24,000 strong crowd, however the Warriors had better find a way to start winning if they want that figure to continue. They face the struggling Knights next Sunday in Newcastle.
The experienced Titans coach said the momentum was shifting at the end of the game but his players showed heart to hold on.
"We probably deserved to get the points but we made a really hard fist of it by giving them a 12 point start," Titans coach Des Hasler said.
"But we knew if we hung in there, if we stuck to what we planned it would turn a little bit.
"Towards the end there we showed a ton of guts of which you'd expect.
"Something special happens on days like these and on the Titans behalf anyway we showed fighting spirit towards the end."
Titans 27 (AJ Brimson 2, Tanah Boyd, David Fifita, Alofiana Khan-Pereira tries; Boyd 3 goals, field goal)
Warriors 24 (Addin Fonua-Blake 2, Charnze Niccol-Klokstad, Rocco Berry tries; Shaun Johnson 4 goals)
HT: 19-12 Titans