It was a good day to be a Sharks fan, as the Cronulla based side finished with a 22-12 victory over a Titans side that struggled, without their key play-maker, in Scott Prince.
Best, playing in his 250th career NRL game, scored his 106th career try, as the Sharks snapped a two-game losing streak, to find themselves back in the winners circle.
“If we want to be fair dinkum and be up there in the top four, we really needed to win today,” said centre Best, who set up a 16-6 lead for his side with his second-half try.
“We know we’ve got a good squad here, so whoever comes in the team is going to do the job. But in saying that, we’ve sort of been down the last couple of weeks even with Todd and Gall.”
With Todd Carney out due to Origin duties, replacement five-eighth Chad Townsend said that the plan was to play as if Carney was there, and to make sure that his unavailability in the game, was not prevalent.
“He (Carney) is obviously an amazing player and an amazing talent and I set myself up today to just play like myself and I thought I did that,” Townsend said.
With the Titans already missing their Origin stars, essentially their entire back-row, the loss of Prince just before the game with lower back soreness, made their task of winning, even harder.
“That was probably the difference in the game,” Titans coach John Cartwright said.
“In the end, they kicked really well. They had a lot of ball and a lot of field position.”
The Titans night was compounded further, with interchange forward Ryan James placed on report for a late hit.