Kwinana Titans 8 – Fremantle Roosters 64
By PETER ROWE
Fremantle recovered from their big loss in the Fuel to Go & Play Premiership two weeks ago to score their biggest win of the season at Kwinana with an 12-try victory over the Titans.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the Roosters as they received a halftime spray for letting Kwinana score twice before the break.
“The spray from assistant coach Carl Harding worked and the team responded,” player-coach Duane Butler said.
“We got off to a great start and led 24-0 before they hit us with two tries. Just poor defence.
“I think we only completed about 65% in the first half – not good enough. It did improve in the second, but overall we were at about 71% and we really need to be about 80 to be real contenders.”
Butler conceded it was a warm day for the first weekend of winter, and several players went down with cramp late on.
Backrower Lleyton Cameron opened the scoring after three minutes, swiftly followed across the whitewash two minutes later by centre Taiapa Graham.
Halfback Ishmael Leilua was next to cross before Roydon Gillett scored in the 14th minute.
The one-way traffic continued when Delane Edwards grabbed a try before Te Anini O Rongo Pardoe (32nd minute) and Taini Tupaea five minutes before the siren gave the Titans some hope.
Edwards scored his second on the siren and Harry Debique the points (eight from 12 overall).
Butler led from the front after that halftime spray to score and winger Nic Riggs grabbed a welcome double to extend the lead before Cameron added a second and winger Manson Carmody and prop Gethin Thomas finished the Scoring for the day.
“Our first 20 was good, but our second wasn’t,” Butler added.
“But we listened at half-time and corrected and got the points.
“There is still a lot of work to do though, especially on defence.”