Talking points: Worst game of year for hapless Raiders

It was also their biggest home loss since a 68-4 point thumping by Melbourne in 2013.

On a typically freezing July night in the capital, it was the men from the Gold Coast who seemed to revel in the single-digit temperatures despite only flying into the capital earlier in the day.

Ricky Stuart's side had much to play for with Jordan Rapana (150), Sam Williams (100) and Ryan Sutton (50) all celebrating significant milestones in the NRL. That's not to mention the long-awaited return of captain Jarrod Croker.

But it was the 13^th placed Titans who brought all the attitude suggesting they haven't quite put the cue in the 2021 rack despite sitting fourth from the bottom.

The 7646 who turned out in the crowd was easily the club's lowest attendance since last year's Covid pandemic.

Underlining the Raiders' showing on Saturday was a whopping 69 missed tackles, including 29 in a disastrous first half. They're simply unacceptable numbers.

They let the visitors run riot, and let's not forget this was a team which was beaten 56-24 by Manly prior to State of Origin weekend. The Titans have now leapfrogged Canberra on the NRL ladder.

Gold Coast back rower Kevin Proctor sent a video message to his good mate Rapana during the week, congratulating him on his 150th NRL match.

But it was Proctor, not Rapana, who did the celebrating in Canberra, winding back the clock and scoring two? tries in the embarrassing romp.

The milestone men will remember their big occasion for all the wrong reasons, although at least club favourite Williams can take a try out of his 100th match after touching down close to the line after receiving a short pass from Rapana close to the line.

Titans representative star David Fifita was in no mood to congratulate Williams on his NRL century.

He relentlessly targeted his much smaller opponent in attack during the first half hour of play, coming up with a bullocking try on the left edge to open the scoring.

Then he put a shot on Williams while the Raiders halfback didn't have the ball, earning 10 minutes in the sin bin.

That didn't seem to bother the visiting Titans, who ran in three tries while their enforcer was off the field to rack up a 22-0 lead at the break.

Off-contract Ash Taylor gave Raiders' recruiting staff plenty to think about at Canberra Stadium, playing arguably his best game of the NRL season.

Taylor's is still yet to re-sign with the Titans beyond 2021, while the Raiders are actively seeking a replacement halfback for departed Englishman George Williams..

His kicking game was something the Raiders could only watch with envy, while Taylor orchestrated his side's first time shifting the ball out to Fifita who muscled over from close range.

He set up another try early in the second half, grubbering deftly letting Brian Kelly to run around to score untouched under the posts.

Taylor copped a late shot from Joseph Tapine late in the game, but shook it off moments before Patrick Herbert scored in the corner.

Tapine was lucky not to cop 10 minutes in the bin after Fifita was marched for similar earlier on.

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