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Boyd urges Titans to muscle up to Bunnies

Gold Coast's forwards need to put their bodies on the line to stop Sam Burgess and the South Sydney forward pack, recruit Shannon Boyd believes.

Shannon Boyd.
Shannon Boyd says Gold Coast's forwards need to put their bodies on the line against South Sydney. (AAP)

Stopping South Sydney's Sam Burgess will be a matter of physically matching the in-form English forward, Gold Coast recruit Shannon Boyd believes.

The Titans face the Rabbitohs in Sydney on Sunday with both teams having made contrasting starts to their seasons.

While Wayne Bennett has got off to a perfect start at Redfern with Souths winning matches against Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra, the Titans are 0-2 after losses to Canberra and Cronulla.

Boyd believes the Titans pack hasn't done themselves justice in those defeats - with the exception of Jai Arrow's 299m effort in a losing team against the Sharks.

It's a different story for Burgess who scored a try and set up another in a game-turning four-minute period against the Dragons last Friday.

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Boyd believes the Titans have the muscle to match Souths' pack, they just have to actually step up to the challenge.

"We really need to go out there, try and get into these fellas and prove ourselves as a pack in the comp because at the moment we're well below average," Boyd told AAP.

"Just got to put your body on the line mate ... do what we do at training every week.

"We've got big blokes here too, we do it at training but we've got to do it on the field."

Titans' captain Ryan James says his team needs to look no further than Rabbitohs' lock Cameron Murray for an example of a player using their physicality to dominate contests.

"He's probably only 90-odd kilos but he just runs hard, finds his front, plays the ball and works hard in defence," James said of the Bunnies No.13.

"They usually play off the back of a roll on, if they have a quick play the ball, (Damien) Cook jumps out and he's probably one of the quickest people in the game.

"We know what's coming this weekend we just have to make sure we defend it."


2 min read

Published

Source: AAP



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