St George-Illawarra coach Paul McGregor says NSW State of Origin prop Trent Merrin answered a halftime challenge to change the game against Gold Coast when he produced a crucial but potentially costly go-ahead try.
Gareth Widdop's field goal proved decisive in a nail-biting 19-18 NRL away win after Brad Takairangi's 78th-minute try and Greg Bird's conversion had pulled the Titans back to within one point before time ran out.
But McGregor had special praise for Merrin's earlier contribution when he ran over the tackle of Titans debutant halfback Daniel Mortimer and touched down to make the score 18-12 before limping off with a knee injury soon after.
McGregor revealed he had called for something special from Merrin - one of five Origin players involved alongside teammate Josh Dugan and Titans trio Dave Taylor, Bird and Nate Myles - when the scores were locked at 12-12 at halftime.
"I challenged him at halftime (to) change how the game will play out," McGregor said.
"When the game's in the situation where it is and he's had to play on Wednesday night like others, he needed to be challenged and he answered that."
McGregor played down Merrin's injury, saying he left the field as a precaution and was not expected to miss any action, including Origin III.
"He said he'd be okay," McGregor said. "(He) said he could jog on it.
"It was just a stage that if we left him out there and he got a whack on it, it could be detrimental in the future."
Gold Coast fell to a club record sixth straight loss while the Dragons pulled level on points with the 12th-placed Titans.
The Titans' hopes of a comeback were hindered by Myles being sin-binned for complaining to the referee about a block before the Merrin try.
The game came to life after four minutes when Benji Marshall took the Titans' line on before feeding Leeson Ah Mau outside him for the first try.
Shortly afterwards, though, Kevin Gordon intercepted an overly ambitious long Marshall pass to the right wing and raced 85 metres to touch down.
These moments typified an erratic display from Marshall.
As well as some sublime passes and kicks, his errant feed gave away a scrum to the Titans and one of his high kicks went 10 metres backwards.
McGregor insists Marshall and the team will have to live with such inconsistencies, as the former Wests Tigers star acclimatises to life back in the NRL.
"With Benji, it's a process," McGregor said.
"He's just got to play himself into form. He's got to train hard and he's doing that."
Mark Minichiello and Dugan exchanged tries before the break and the scores remained level until Merrin's intervention on the hour mark.
Share
