Qld Teams - Rogers in halves for crunch match

Veteran Mat Rogers will play five-eighth in the Titans crucial match with competition leaders St George-Illawarra on Friday night.

Coach John Cartwright named Rogers to partner Scott Prince in the halves after scans showed Greg Bird will miss 3-4 weeks with a hamstring injury.

Bird suffered the injury late in the Titans 24-10 loss to Brisbane last week – their sixth loss in the last eight matches.

Another defeat this weekend could see the Gold Coast tumble out of the top eight for the first time this season.

As a result of Bird’s injury, and a knee problem for lock Ashley Harrison sidelining him for two weeks, Cartwright has re-jigged his backline for this weekend’s match at Kogarah in Sydney.

Bodene Thompson reverts back to his more familiar lock forward position with Clinton Toopi and former Bronco Steve Michaels completing a new look centre pairing.

Enigmatic young flyer Shannon Walker, normally a fullback or winger, has been named on a five man bench alongside 20-year-old debutant back-rower Ben Ridge.

Impressive rookie forward Ryan James drops back to the under 20’s after limited NRL game time in recent weeks.

With a negative point differential and an away trip to New Zealand before a blockbuster with Parramatta to follow, Friday night shapes as a crunch match for the Titans.

Channel Nine will broadcast the game live from 7:30pm Friday.

Cowboys unchanged

Despite slumping to their fourth consecutive loss, North Queensland coach Neil Henry has named an unchanged squad to face Newcastle at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night.

The Cowboys blew a 16-nil lead to be run down 26-16 by the Wests Tigers last night to register their 13th loss of the season.

Anthony Watts will return to the bench after serving a one match suspension with Willie Tonga (ankle) named despite playing just 13 minutes last night.

North Queensland are officially out of this seasons’ finals race with the available 14 competition points not enough to see them even sneak into the top eight.

The Knights, who are still an outside chance at making the finals, will need to bounce back from their humiliating 52-18 loss to Canberra on the weekend.

Fox Sports will have viewer’s choice coverage of this match from 7:30pm Saturday.

Thaiday named

Rampaging back-rower Sam Thaiday is expected to overcome a corked thigh in time for the Broncos match with Sydney Roosters at Suncorp Stadium on Monday night.

Thaiday played barely 20 minutes against the Titans have getting an accidental knee to the thigh while taking a tackle early in the match.

He battled on before succumbing midway through the first half and failed to return.

However the 10 day turnaround should provide Thaiday with time to recover and coach Ivan Henjak today included him in an unchanged side for the clash with the in-form Roosters.

It will be the Broncos first Monday night game at Suncorp Stadium this season and just their second in 2010.

A win for Brisbane could see them replace the Roosters in the top four while a loss could result in the Broncos sliding out of the top eight.

The Broncos have won five of the last six matches between the clubs however the Roosters ran out convincing 25-6 winners when they met on Good Friday this season.

It will be the first time the Roosters have played the Broncos in Brisbane since 2005 with the match to be broadcast live on Fox Sports from 7pm Monday.

Gold Coast Titans vs. Dragons, Friday 7:35pm, (Channel Nine, live)
Preston Campbell, Kevin Gordon, Steve Michaels, Clinton Toopi, William Zillman, Mat Rogers, Scott Prince (c), Luke Bailey, Nathan Friend, Michael Henderson, Anthony Laffranchi, Mark Minichiello, Bodene Thompson. Interchange: Matthew White, Brad Meyers, Ben Ridge, Luke O’Dwyer, Shannon Walker (one to be omitted).

North Queensland Cowboys vs. Newcastle, Saturday 7:30pm, (Fox Sports Two, live).
Matthew Bowen, Ashley Graham, Arana Taumata, Willie Tonga, Will Tupou, Grant Rovelli, Johnathan Thurston (c), Matt Scott, Aaron Payne, Willie Mason, Scott Bolton, Leeson Ah Mau, Luke O’Donnell. Interchange: Anthony Watts, Dane Hogan, Carl Webb, James Tamou, Ben Harris (one to be omitted).

Brisbane Broncos vs. Roosters, Monday 7pm, (Fox Sports Two, live)
Josh Hoffman, Antonio Winterstein, Alex Glenn, Israel Folau, Jharal Yow Yeh, Darren Lockyer (c), Peter Wallace, Shane Tronc, Andrew McCullough, Nick Kenny, Ben Te’o, Sam Thaiday, Corey Parker. Interchange: Ben Hunt, Matt Gillett, Mitchell Dodds, Josh McGuire.