Melbourne Storm avoid a shock result by comfortably beating the Parramatta Eels, though a Cameron Smith back injury sours the night, while Manly's loss to Gold Coast signals a new low for the struggling club.
Storm beat Eels, but Smith injury causes concern
Titans pile more pain on struggling Sea Eagles
Manly has capped its week from hell with an embarrassing 42-34 NRL thumping at the hands of Gold Coast.
After days on end dominated by headlines about Trent Barrett's future, the Sea Eagles turned belly up in the second-half to leave them in danger of collecting the club's first wooden spoon.
In front of a paltry crowd of 6,382, the Titans ran in six unanswered tries at one point.
They weren't on the board until outstanding teenager AJ Brimson crossed just before half-time.
After saving a try on Brian Kelly up one end, he left Daly Cherry-Evans grasping at thin air up the other to make it 22-12 at the break.
Manly appeared to have the game in the bag when Tom Trbojevic scored two tries and set his brother Jake up for another in the space of five minutes.
Manly led 22-6 after half an hour but just as quickly gave it all away.
The Sea Eagles often looked disinterested, and the result will only pile pressure on the club amid speculation Barrett will walk out on the final two years of his contract.
Kane Elgey showed Manly what it will be getting next year when he sliced through and sent Ash Taylor under the posts to whittle the margin to six in the 42nd minute.
And when Phillip Sami made the most of an overlap, the Titans had their third in six minutes and the score was suddenly 22-22.
Mitch Rein and Jack Stockwell crossed for what can only be described as soft tries before Brimson put the icing on the cake with an Allan Langer-like grubber-and-regather.
The result leaves the Sea Eagles just two points in front of Canterbury, Parramatta and North Queensland and in danger of finishing last for the first time since entering the competition in 1947.
At one point Manly was reduced to 11 men after Addin Fonua-Blake (dissent) and Dylan Walker (professional foul) were sin-binned.
Jake and Tom Trbojevic both crossed in the final five minutes to give the scoreline some respectability but the damage was done.
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