'So much to be proud of': Courage supersedes disappointment in Townsville

Whilst there's plenty of disappointment the Titans didn't take home the two points from a tough trip to Townsville, there was much positivity to extract from a situation even the best team in the NRL would struggle with.

Losing arguably their two most experienced playmakers to injury within the space of a minute only a quarter into the contest, the brave 15-man Gold Coast outfit never gave up the fight despite the adversity, getting on with the job without fear or failure.

The never-say-die attitude is exactly what the playing squad have been working on growing throughout the off-season, and whilst they did eventually concede four tries in the clash, the courage and character on display given the circumstances and the continuous attacking raids from one of the premiership favourites is something that had everyone keep their heads held high despite not icing the win at full-time.

"To have to deal with it for 60 minutes was really tough and was the difference in the end, but there’s so much to be proud of those 15 boys," Holbrook said post-match.

The reshuffle to cover the loss of AJ Brimson and Kieran Foran saw Jayden Campbell resume regular service in the No. 1 jersey, while Erin Clark rewound the clock to his junior days by joining Tanah Boyd in the halves.

It also saw one of the Titans' key performers Chris Randall get through his first 80-minute stint in his new colours, starring in a very similar game to that of his debut in 2020.

Finishing with 36 tackles at a perfect 100 percent efficiency rate, the 27-year-old was proud of his teammates for doing what they had to do to remain in the fight despite all the misfortune around them.

"Obviously it was one of those ones that didn't go our way... but I thought the boys dug pretty deep for a majority of the game," Randall told titans.com.au post-match.

"We only had two on the bench there for most of the game and a lot of boys played some bigger minutes than normal and out of position as well.

"It could have easily got more away from us than what it did, but we dug deep and worked hard for each other and we'll take away what we can from that."

The defensive resolve is what Randall feels is what his side can reflect on the most from the performance, denying the Cowboys 25 times from scoring in the opening half hour and neutralising the margin to just two converted tries despite the injury carnage to their two key linchpins.

"Particularly in the first half, there was a really long period where we defended our line in back-to-back sets and held them out for a very long time," he said.

"We wanted to be a bit more resilient going into this game in defence and we just kept turning up for it each other and turning them away.

"If I was to take a positive away from this game, we just kept digging deep and turning up for one another for long periods of time."

The Titans will now recuperate during next weekend's bye ahead of hosting the Dragons at Cbus Super Stadium on Easter Sunday.