Walsh hospitalised after Broncos hold off gutsy Titans

Brisbane have made it three wins in a row with a controversial 26-12 derby triumph over Gold Coast, but it came at a cost.

Fullback Reece Walsh, playing his 100th NRL match, was taken to hospital after the match with a suspected cheekbone fracture.

Walsh displayed his creative genius in the first half with a try for the ages, before he was concussed tackling Titans forward Kurtis Morrin on the cusp of halftime.

Broncos coach Michael Maguire was concerned for Walsh after the match.

“Reece has gone to hospital to get a scan just below his eye so we will have to wait and see on that,” Maguire said.

The category-one HIA ruled the No.1 out for the match and he will definitely miss Friday night’s clash with North Queensland at Suncorp Stadium.

Earlier, captain Adam Reynolds suffered a groin strain and was replaced by fellow veteran Ben Hunt, who also played with a knee injury.

Reynolds said he would have scans on the injury, while Hunt showed great bravery to play on.

“Early mail from the doc at halftime is he thinks I’ve stretched my medial a little bit. I’ll go and catch up with him now,” Hunt said in the dressing sheds.

Gold Coast were right up for the match and trailed 8-6 at halftime, but it was the class of Brisbane stars Ezra Mam and Kotoni Staggs that proved the difference.

Mam, who Maguire also said had “a few bangs”, was outstanding in the second half.

The win took the defending premiers inside the top eight for the first time this season.

It was a lapse of concentration after the break that cost the hosts dearly. They failed to contest a Hunt bomb, Staggs collected the scraps and kicked again for Mam to collect and send bench prop Xavier Willison over.

Mam then put centre Gehamat Shibasaki over and all of a sudden the visitors led 16-6.

The Titans were desperately unlucky to have a try denied when centre AJ Brimson crossed, only for a forward pass to be ruled against five-eighth Lachlan Ilias.

Jesse Arthars, who had moved from the wing to fullback after Walsh’s exit, scored up the other end in the next set to rub salt into the wounds.

“It is a hard game and when you earn your opportunity and ice it, and it gets taken away, it is frustrating for the players,” said a frustrated Gold Coast coach Josh Hannay.

“You have got to try and brush that and we just didn’t … so that’s a learn for us and a work-on.”

Walsh lit up the stadium in the third minute when he bombed from 15m out and raced through to catch it and score himself while being buffeted by defenders. It was a moment of sheer skill and breathtaking audacity.

The Titans’ rising second-rower Arama Hau, hero from last week’s win over St George Illawarra, stormed 15m and was only denied by a desperate try-saver by Mam.

Mam was then crunched by Gold Coast prop Moeaki Fotuaika and centre Jojo Fifita swooped on the loose ball to race 65m and score the first of his two tries.

Walsh raced 90m down the left touchline on the cusp of halftime and beat four defenders to put the ball over the line, but he had just touched the sideline in doing so.

A minute later he was on his way off the field, but the Titans were unable to make the Broncos pay in the second half, despite several near misses.

Meanwhile, an emotional Shane Flanagan has apologised to fans after St George Illawarra’s 32-0 flogging from North Queensland piled more pressure on the Dragons coach.

The Dragons were booed by fans at a half-empty Kogarah on fulltime on Saturday, after slipping to the club’s worst ever start to a season with a winless opening five rounds.

The result also left the Dragons with the longest losing streak in the joint-venture’s history, which now sits at nine and dates back to August.

“It’s not good enough for this club,” said Flanagan, who cut a devastated figure in the post-match press conference.

“I don’t accept it, I am not happy with it, I am terribly disappointed and I am sorry.

“I fully understand the frustration, I am as frustrated as anyone.

“All I know is it hasn’t worked this year, but I’m not going to give up.”

Making matters worse for the Dragons was co-captain and fullback Clint Gutherson limping up the tunnel on fulltime with a hamstring injury.

On the flip side North Queensland now have three straight wins, just weeks after their coach Todd Payten’s job security had appeared as bleak as Flanagan’s following a 0-2 start.

Flanagan now needs a revival of that kind from his Dragons, after he conceded on Friday he was “a realist” and knew he needed wins to remain coach.

In two-and-a-bit seasons at the club he has blooded a number of young forwards, but the Dragons’ finals drought is now at risk of reaching an eighth year.

They had at least been in all of their first four losses until late in the game, but were never in the contest on Saturday.

Scott Drinkwater and Jaxon Purdue blitzed them, with Drinkwater kicking a 40-20 before the Cowboys’ first, then slicing through the Dragons’ left edge two plays later to score.

The Dragons’ best attacking raid in the first half ended when Dan Atkinson kicked on the second tackle, which was easily scooped up by Drinkwater.

Moments later it was 10-0 when Jake Clifford offloaded for Purdue to go 65 metres and score, before Clifford later grubber-kicked for Purdue’s second on halftime.

Nothing summed up the Dragons’ day more than a 90-metre Braidon Burns try, when a wayward Lyhkan King-Togia pass went to ground from a Dragons scrum.

Making matters worse for the Dragons was the fact it came while the Cowboys were down to 12 men, with Reuben Cotter sin-binned for a professional foul.

King-Togia in particular had a poor afternoon in place of the concussed Kyle Flanagan, while Atkinson’s kicking game was below par, with multiple grubbers going dead.

“It just wasn’t good enough,” Flanagan said.

“We looked like we didn’t know each other at different stages, passes behind each other, a lack of cohesion. It was very disappointing.”

In contrast, Clifford was great at No.6 for the Cowboys, and Purdue had a field day outside him.

The centre finished with 189 metres to go with his two tries, and also sent Taulagi over for one in the second half.

Burns and Sam McIntyre both limped off with ankle injuries in the win, the only sour note for the Cowboys.

“We’ve got a team, we’ve just got to keep believing,” Payten said.

“We’ve adjusted to the way the game is being played. We’ve got some footy in us.”