Pressure builds on under-fire Justin Holbrook as Souths hand Titans another heavy loss

Titans coach Justin Holbrook could be the next NRL coach to be relieved of his duties after Gold Coast suffered a 30-16 loss to South Sydney on Saturday.

The loss was the Titans’ ninth in their last 10 outings and left them stranded in 15th place on the NRL ladder, just a year after making the finals.

Of the bottom-four teams, the 46-year-old is the only coach still holding onto his job. Trent Barrett left his job at bottom-of-the ladder Canterbury last month, while 13th-placed Wests Tigers and 14th-placed Warriors fired Michael Maguire and Nathan Brown earlier this week.

Incidentally the Warriors – twice – and the Tigers accounted for three of Gold Coast’s four wins in the last 18 games, with the the other coming against St George Illawarra.

Speaking on Friday, Holbrook insisted he did not fear for his job but conceded the poor results were affecting everyone connected with the club.  

‘I’m not [worried about my own job], I’m disappointed about how we are going,’ he told the AAP.

‘I feel horrible. We’re letting a lot of people down. […] Since I came in, we went from last to ninth and then ninth to eighth and you naturally just want to get better. I feel secure in what I’m doing.’

The Titans boss insisted he did not fear for his job despite a dismal run of form for his side

His conviction will be severely tested after Souths sealed a comfortable win to move sixth on the ladder, courtesy of an Alex Johnston’s hat-trick.

The Rabbitohs winger now has the great Ken Irvine in his sights after scoring his 150th NRL try in South’s win over the Titans.

There was no stopping Johnston as he charged over for his milestone to open the scoring in his 179th NRL match. That makes him the third-fastest player of all time to reach 150 tries behind Harold Horder and Irvine.

AIrvine was a talisman for the North Sydney Bears and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles from 1958 to 1973 and played 24 matches for New South Wales and notched up 31 international appearances for the Kangaroos.

Alex Johnston bagged a hat-trick as the Rabbitohs sealed a comfortable win on Saturday

The Rabbitohs winger now has the great Ken Irvine in his sights after scoring his 150th NRL try

He scored 212 tries in his career, a feat that could be beaten by Johnstone. By notching up his 150th NRL try at just 27, Johnston could surpass Irvine when he is 31 or 32.

Souths’ win continues their dominance over Gold Coast with their last loss coming six years ago.

Enjoying a 12-4 lead at the break, Johnston bagged his second just after halftime when an error in midfield gifted the Bunnies field position.

Some soft hands to the left edge put him into space, and with enough momentum got to the line through contact.

The Rabbitohs climbed up to sixth on the NRL ladder with a convincing win 

While the Titans have now lost nine of their last 10 games and 15 of their last 19 outings

Titans skipper Tino Fa’asuamaleaui crossed to get them back into the contest, but Souths wrangled back momentum in the 60th minute after a stellar run by Campbell Graham was finished off by a surging Taane Milne who crashed over.

Fa’asuamaleaui bagged a late consolation minutes from fulltime but milestone man Tom Burgess still celebrated a win in his 200th NRL game.

In the first half, the visitors enjoyed an eight-point buffer at the break after tries to Johnston and Jaxson Paulo.

They cracked the Titans defence after just six minutes with two crash plays creating space on the left edge and Cody Walker lofted a pass out wide to his winger who stepped off his left foot to score.

Taane Milne also crashed over for the Rabbitohs, icing the game in the second half 

The Titans fired back through Greg Marzhew shortly after when a successful captain’s challenge gave them attacking set.

Toby Sexton fired a long pass out to his left edge and the 104kg wrecking ball Marzhew powered through two tacklers to find his way to the line.

Marzhew ran for 122 metres in first half but he couldn’t stop Paulo shortly after when he latched onto a Lachlan Ilias high bomb, coming down through contact to score.

It was an arm-wrestle in the final minutes of the half as the Titans heaved pressure on due to their high completions. Paulo came close twice more but was stopped by scrambling defence in the final few minutes before Souths ran away with the contest in the second half.