Two controversial calls have cost Gold Coast in their narrow loss to Canberra, with the Raiders hanging on for a 26-22 triumph to move to fifth on the NRL ladder.
The hosts led 12-0 early on Saturday afternoon at GIO Stadium and looked on track for a big result before a Titans fightback forced them to once again grind out a narrow victory. The competition's close-game kings claimed their 10th success of the season by eight points or less.
But the bunker's decision to chalk off a try for Gold Coast second-rower David Fifita on the stroke of halftime cruelled their chances of victory, referee Todd Smith ruling they'd taken advantage on another play where winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira lost the ball while attempting to score.
The latter decision was especially costly, with the Raiders gathering the loose ball and running 100m to affect a 12-point swing through Matt Timoko.
Titans interim coach Jim Lenihan acknowledged confusion over the decision to strip Fifita's try for pushing Jamal Fogarty over while chasing a kick, with the Canberra halfback appearing to stop in the line to prevent him scoring.
"It's almost a silly situation where if David runs into the back of Jamal and falls over, we get a penalty, but if Dave's trying to contest for the ball and get people out of his way ... he gets penalised," Lenihan said.
"It's one I'll have to obviously have a look at again, but in the big scheme of things, it certainly had a major part to play.
"We allowed bad luck to walk into the room and dance around.
"We just didn't control the ball all that great, certainly in the first half we had a lot of ball errors going down under their try-line and then we had a lot of discipline errors in yardage when we were defending and just gave them an easy leg-out."
Titans powerhouse Fifita had done everything possible to keep his side in it, running for 146m, scoring a first-half try and producing a stunning try assist for Khan-Pereira to get them back within two points with 18 to go.
Queensland State of Origin hopeful Raider Corey Horsburgh did all he could to seal a spot in Billy Slater's 17 for game three with a workmanlike 110m, 46-tackle display, before NSW representative Hudson Young sealed the points six minutes from time.
If Horsburgh and Young do play Origin, Canberra will be searching for a number of forwards next weekend against St George Illawarra with Pasami Saulo (concussion) joining Josh Papali'i (hamstring) in the casualty ward.
"We're going to try and find three forwards, so we're going to have a different team next week," Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said.
"But I love to have that during the Origin series, I'd love to have four or five of them, I'd love to have as many Origin players as I possibly could."
Stuart singled out Whitehead and Fogarty for their defensive efforts in keeping Fifita to just one try, somehow stifling the wrecking ball that looked to rip the victory away from the Raiders.
Likely Maroons No.1 AJ Brimson was solid and threw a great try assist, although he looked shaky under the high ball at times.
