The Gold Coast Titans beat the Origin-depleted Melbourne Storm 18-0 in their round 13 NRL clash at Skilled Park on Monday night.

Ten of Melbourne’s stars were on State of Origin duty and it showed in slippery conditions at Robina with the Titans running in three unanswered tries, cementing their place at fourth position on the NRL ladder.

The Titans have a strong home game record and they continued that trend, this win taking their home record to seven from seven.

Gold Coast led Melbourne 12-0 at half-time after the Storm had missed 18 tackles and the Titans dominated possession.

Titans’ Centre Brett Delaney scored the first try in the right corner just before the fifth minute, finishing off some tidy passing from his team-mates, but the returning Mat Rogers failed to add another two points with his conversion attempt.

Some smart kicking from Rogers kept the Storm under pressure and the Titans made the most of the return from dropout, successfully kicking a penalty in front of the posts and taking the score to 6-0.

Bradley Meyers crossed for the Titans in the 18th minute after Melbourne was again caught short on the right side of the filed. Rogers converted the try to push Gold Coast’s lead out to 12 points.

The Storm came very close in the 26th minute, bustling their way over the line only to be held up by some desperate Titans’ defence.

The score remained unchanged at 12-0 until a magnificent effort from Ben Jeffery saw him collect his own chip kick to cross in the 64th minute. Rogers converted to take the score to 18-0.

Titans: 18 (B Delaney 1, B Meyers 1, B Jeffery 1; M Rogers 2 conversions, penalty goal)

Storm: 0

By ricky

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