Captain’s injury only sour note as Sharks smash Titans
Ed Jackson |
A suspected season-ending knee injury to influential captain Cameron McInnes has soured Cronulla’s 54-22 NRL thumping of bottom side Gold Coast.
McInnes limped off in the 20th minute of Cronulla’s rout at Sharks Stadium on Saturday complaining of instability in his right knee, and will be sent for scans in coming days.
Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon found it difficult to sum up the impact McInnes’s absence would have on his team after confirming fears the 31-year-old’s campaign is over.
“That’d be hard to wrap up in a press conference five minutes after the game,” Fitzgibbon said.
“It’ll be an opportunity for someone else to step up as a leader.
“He’s OK, Cam. Cam’s emotional bank account has two cents in it. It’s like just nothing – point blank – I’m good.”
McInnes’s injury was the only sour note for the Sharks as they ran riot over the last-placed Titans, particularly with the boot, four of their five first-half tries coming on the back of attacking kicks.
With a bye next weekend, the Sharks are now an outside chance at a finals double-chance, having moved within two points of the fourth-placed Warriors.
Wiradjuri man Nicho Hynes led the way in the Indigenous Round clash for the Sharks with 22 points on Saturday, including a first-half try double.
Wingers Ronaldo Mulitalo and Sione Katoa also notched doubles in the 10-tries-to-four rout.
Mawene Hiroti set up three tries, including one off a clever grubber to Gamilaraay man Will Kennedy.
Braydon Trindall’s bombs terrorised the Titans’ right edge in the opening half, with Jesse Colquhoun’s first NRL try moments after coming on for McInnes one of those set up off Trindall’s boot.
The Titans actually began brightly, responding to an early Hynes try with back-to-back scores by Jayden De Groot and Beau Fermor to have a 10-6 lead after 15 minutes.
But any hopes of an upset evaporated over the next 56 minutes as the Sharks ran in nine unanswered tries, before a late surge resulted in Phillip Sami and Josh Patson – another first-time NRL try-scorer – putting some gloss on the scorecard.
Titans coach Des Hasler admitted the return of Keano Kini on the bench, after a serious neck injury had sidelined him since round three, was forced by an injury crisis to his outside backs.
Hasler viewed the defeat as a step backwards for his team after some improved recent efforts.
“Probably the last seven or eight weeks we’ve been beat up and we’ve played some good footy,” Hasler said.
“(We) had some narrow losses, some unfortunate losses.
“We came here this afternoon expecting a pretty tough game against the Sharks. I’m not going to use injury as an excuse, but we had a lot of late changes.
“But they (Cronulla) lost a few as well and I just thought there were periods that we’re in the game.
“We didn’t capitalise on the parts that we had … probably guilty of letting that game go, particularly late in that first half.”
AAP
