Ex-St Helens coach Justin Holbrook ‘under huge pressure’ in NRL after equalling unwanted record

Super League winning head coach Justin Holbrook watched his NRL side Gold Coast Titans equal an unwanted record at the weekend.

The Titans surrendered a 26-0 lead to lose 28-26 to NRL new boys the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium, the second week in a row that they had given up a half-time lead.

It equalled the previous record set by Penrith in 1998, when they surrendered a 26 point lead to lose 36-28 to North Queensland Cowboys.

Holbrook said post-match: “Just extremely disappointed…we obviously came out ready to go and got a terrific lead, but just completely got dominated in that second-half.

“They just got on a roll, offloading the ball and camped down on our tryline, and then we did a few reckless things ourselves. It was a little bit similar to last week and it cost us.

“That’s the area we’ve got to fix…we’ve put ourselves in a great position and during the game we are getting things wrong. It’s going to be a collective approach by the whole side – we can’t have that continuing.

“We had to try and change the momentum and we weren’t good enough to. We’ve got to be able to change momentum when things aren’t going our way – we are very good when they are.

“We came out and set it up at 26-6, we’ve just got to be better collectively. It doesn’t matter who comes in and who doesn’t – we are just getting it wrong during the game and we’ve got to fix it out there.”

‘Under huge, huge pressure’

Holbrook’s future had been called in to question last summer as the Titans struggled.

NRL pundit Phil Rothfield said: “Holbrook, remember back to that game against Newcastle last year, one of the worst performances I’d ever seen from any football side.

“I was told after that game he was gone, he wouldn’t coach this year.

“So he scraped through to keep his job and I think he has got a better roster than their position on the ladder, that would indicate and he’s under huge, huge pressure.”

Gold Coast started their season with two wins in the opening three games against Wests Tigers and Melbourne Storm, but have only managed a narrow victory over St George-Illawarra Dragons since.

Former Leeds hooker Kruise Leeming moved to the NRL recently to bolster Holbrook’s squad, and he scored his first try for the club against Brisbane. They currently sit 10th in the NRL table.

The defeat to the Dolphins, who have won five of their first eight games, has also exposed how the Titans have lacked identity since they joined the NRL.

Prior to the Dolphins joining for 2023, Gold Coast were the last ‘new’ team in the NRL, having joined back in 2007.

The Titans were reported to have turned down an approach by Wayne Bennett to take over in 2020, and he is now masterminding the Dolphins progress.

Holbrook agreed to take charge for the 2020 in July 2019, during his third year in charge at St Helens. He enjoyed an 80% win percentage at Saints, leading them to the first of their current run of four consecutive Super League titles.

In his first season in the NRL, Holbrook led the Titans to 9th place before they made it to the play-offs for the first time since 2016 last season, losing 25-24 to Sydney Roosters.

Former Wigan boss Michael Maguire and another old St Helens coach in Mick Potter are amongst those being linked with Gold Coast, should a vacancy become available.

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