A limping Jarryd Hayne is in serious doubt for a grudge match against his former club Parramatta as a decimated Gold Coast Titans – who played more than half the match with just one man on the bench – crashed to defeat against Newcastle, whose record losing run was halted at 336 days.
After a week in which his desire and fitness were questioned, Hayne hobbled from the field after just half an hour with a left ankle complaint and was propped up by crutches in the dressing room afterwards as the Titans notched not one, but two try-of-the-year contenders, at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday.
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Hayne injured as Newcastle down Titans
An injury to Jarryd Hayne has compounded a horror afternoon for the Titans as a late Knights try sealed a 34-26 victory for their first win since round 16 last season.
And the Knights took full advantage as they recorded a 34-26 win – their first success since round six in April last year – ending a 19-game winless streak.
Hayne's potential absence will be a savage blow for the Titans and NRL marketers who would be hoping to cash in on his first clash against the Eels after a week of turbulent headlines about The Plane's commitment to Gold Coast's cause.
A threadbare Titans also lost winger Anthony Don (pectoral muscle) and Karl Lawton (dislocated shoulder) on a horror afternoon while Englishman Joe Greenwood was helped off the field with concussion in the opening minutes and subsequently passed a head injury assessment.
It meant Neil Henry's side had just one man on the bench in the second half, but still managed to engineer a miracle try which featured two kicks and 12 pairs of hands before Greenwood burrowed over.
It will be little consolation to Henry though, as he faces a backline crisis after ex-Knight Tyrone Roberts, who was named as starting hooker, finished the match at fullback.
It is Hayne's injury which will attract most attention though given the Titans will host Parramatta, who Hayne didn't return to last year after his NFL and Olympic Games experiment, despite a "lifetime agreement" with the club, at Cbus Super Stadium on Friday night.
Hayne buckled under a challenge from Knights skipper Trent Hodkinson when pursuing an Ash Taylor bomb mid-way through the first half.
The play did result in a miraculous try though, which spurred a Titans revival after training by 12 points early, as Don leapt and batted the bouncing ball 10 metres backwards into the waiting hands of Konrad Hurrell.
It seemed the former Warriors wrecking ball's second try, again off a Taylor bomb after being shuffled to the wing, would settle the contest with 10 minutes left, but Peter Mata'utia's burst and Nathan Ross' sealer sent the Novocastrians into raptures.
Watchers of Hayne had little to see, if anything at all. If his desire could be measured by his scrambling across his goal line, then he passed with flying colours. Because that's basically all there was for him to do behind a sluggish Titans pack while he was on the park.
Twenty-year-old Brock Lamb had a hand in the Knights' opening two tries, sending Brendan Elliot racing through before popping an offload which resulted in prop Jack Stockwell bagging his second try in as many matches.
And it was only when Hayne limped off that the Titans sparked. Don channelled Mark Gasnier in the Anzac Test all those years ago and went a couple of steps further, Lawton surged over moments before leaving with injury and Tyrone Roberts set up his cousin Tyronne Roberts-Davis in a storyline only rugby league can deliver to somehow lift the Titans to the lead at the break.
Nathan Ross and Knights rookie Sam Stone, son of former Newcastle coach Rick, levelled the scores in between Greenwood's Hail Mary second-half try which had kicks from Kane Elgey and Taylor and the ball being thrown in every which direction.
And after Hurrell's second it seemed the heartbreak was happening all over again for Nathan Brown.
But with a bevy of Old Boys watching on in the stands, raucous chants of "Newcastle, Newcastle" lifted the wooden spoon favourites over the line in the last five minutes.
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