Luai's second-half hat-trick lifts Tigers past Titans — Nrl News
nrl news delivered the result the Wests Tigers needed on Sunday afternoon: Jarome Luai scored a second-half hat-trick and lifted them past the Gold Coast Titans. The win keeps their finals push alive while the club continues to chase a return to September football for the first time since 2011.
Luai turns the match
Luai, the Wests Tigers five-eighth, produced the decisive burst after halftime. A second-half hat-trick changed the match in one spell and gave the Tigers the finishing power they had been searching for through the rest of the game.
That came against a Titans side the Tigers had to beat to keep their season moving in the right direction. Luai had arrived at the club from the Penrith Panthers, and this was the kind of output the Tigers recruited him to deliver.
Tigers' 2011 drought
The win also sits inside a bigger problem that has followed the club for years. The Wests Tigers last played finals in 2011, when they lost to the New Zealand Warriors in the semi-finals, and they now carry the competition’s longest active finals drought.
Dean Ritchie said the Tigers have not played finals for 15 years, while Brent Read said they needed someone to step up and lead them after a few hefty defeats and danger of losing touch with the top eight. Read also said, “They need to play finals footy and they needed to win yesterday to keep that alive and I think they’ll play finals football this year.”
Anasta on Luai's role
Braith Anasta was even sharper about Luai’s early Tigers stint. “He knows he needs to deliver and he knows he probably under-delivered,” he said on NRL 360. He added, “He would have been upset and probably disappointed with the way he was playing for the Tigers and a little embarrassed.”
Anasta also said, “The intent shows that he’s still fighting for the club, and he intends on doing that for the next year and a half.” That lines up with Luai’s own timeline, with the playmaker set to join the PNG Chiefs in 2028.
For the Tigers, Sunday was more than one win. It was a response from the player carrying the biggest expectations, and a reminder that their season still has a live line to the finals if he keeps producing that way.
