Titans coach Garth Brennan will issue an urgent SOS to former Storm half Ryley Jacks as he faces the prospect of being without his first-choice halves pairing for a further week.
The Titans were left, in Brennan’s own words, “rudderless” when five-eighth Tyrone Roberts was forced from the field after just 12 minutes with an Achilles tendon injury.
Thankfully it is not a season-ending rupture but the injury will keep Roberts on the sideline for at least a month, the full extent to be determined following scans on Monday.
The loss of Roberts came on the back of the late withdrawal of halfback Ash Taylor with a quadriceps injury prior to kick-off and thrust Tyrone Peachey and AJ Brimson together as a makeshift halves pairing for the majority of the 21-0 loss to the Raiders on Sunday evening.
Poor ball control in atrocious conditions put the Titans defence under enormous pressure and when they did hold onto the ball, in the absence of Taylor and Roberts they seemed to have little idea what to do with it.
Match Highlights: Titans v Raiders
With his organisational skills honed under Craig Bellamy at the Storm, Jacks shapes as the perfect replacement for Saturday’s clash with Cronulla at Shark Park and provides Brennan with at least some comfort after a rough start to the season.
"Absolutely. Ryley will definitely come into the equation if Ash and Tyrone are no good next week, that’s for sure," Brennan said.
"He’s a good player Ryley, that’s why we signed him. He’s been in a really good system.
"I watched him play today and I thought he did a decent job there at Tweed [Heads] and he played well last week as well. On the bright side, this year we do have a bit of depth there in that position.
"I’ve got the utmost faith in Ryley and if he gets the call next weekend he’ll do the job."
In addition to Roberts getting scans on his Achilles injury, Taylor will also be examined further to ascertain the full extent of his quad injury.
Injured mid-week while completing some kicking practice, Brennan said there were no guarantees his star No.7 would recover in time to face Cronulla.
"I don’t think it’s a strain of the muscle, I think it’s more of a tendon injury," Brennan explained.
"We’ll get that investigated a little bit further and go from there. Tyrone has an Achilles injury of some sort. Not a rupture.
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"We’ll get a scan done on that and see how serious it is and what we’re dealing with."
While pleased with the defensive resolve his side displayed under the pressure of a 63% completion rate and 45% of possession, Brennan was critical of the ill discipline that led to the home side finishing on the wrong end of an 11-6 penalty count.
"We were a bit rudderless there when we had the football. We made way too many errors and put ourselves under way too much pressure," Brennan said.
"We were lost, to be honest, losing Tyrone so early. Penalties hurt us, discipline was poor and we need to be better than that."
