Roosters 28 Gold Coast 32

FOR all the good deeds Preston Campbell did with the ball against the Roosters last night, it was his tackle on Willie Mason in the dying minutes - which forced him from the field with concussion - that clinched the four-point victory.

Yet it's even more remarkable when you hear the diminutive fullback provide his version of events.

"I think I hit Big Willie's big willie," he said afterwards, sending reporters into raptures. "It gave me a bit of a knock on the head. I felt straight away that my legs were gone. I tried to come forward but I had nothing in the tank. I was a bit dazed for a little while there. As soon as I got off the field, I felt fine. I just thought I would've been a bit of a liability."

For the preceding 77 minutes, he had been anything but.

After the Roosters led 28-16 at half-time, Titans five-eighth Mat Rogers sauntered through to put his team back into the contest. Then Campbell used his streetwise cunning to milk a penalty before throwing three dummies to put centre Josh Graham over in the ensuing set to level the scores 28-28.

Five minutes later, he put up a crosskick that found centre Gavin Cooper, whose astounding catch and pass put winger Ben Jeffery over for the matchwinner.

But it was Campbell's effort in chopping down Mason - who weighs 37 kilograms more than he does - with minutes to go that was still reverberating around the SFS last night. Campbell regained his feet, tackled Braith Anasta, and then struggled up the tunnel.

"He smells when the danger's on," Titans coach John Cartwright said. "If he tackled like that every time, he would've retired seven years ago. When there's that crucial moment, he smells it and lines it up and leads with his head. He always brings them down - but he stays down as well."

Campbell, who seemed unaffected by the head knock standing outside the jubilant Titans dressing room, said: "I need to get down and dig my shoudlers in but I don't get my head out of the road in time."

Campbell's courage was one of the many highlights for the Titans in just their second away win this year and their first since captain and halfback Scott Prince's season was ended when his arm was shattered while playing for Queensland in Origin III.

With a play-offs berth probably resting on the result, they had sprinted to a 12-0 lead after just four minutes through crossfield kicks to rookie halfback Brad Davis.

But that start sparked an avalanche of points from the Roosters, who scored five tries in the first half to establish a commanding lead that few in the 10,762-strong crowd would've thought was surmountable.

And not least because the Titans were sans a galaxy of stars, headed by Prince, prop Luke Bailey (foot), Ashley Harrison (ribs) and Mark Minichiello (ankle).

"I didn't even think of that [about Prince missing]," Campbell said. "To be able to hold them to zero in the second half, that's a really good win. I'd definitely put it up there as our best win since being at the club."

Roosters coach Brad Fittler said his side learnt a lesson last night, albeit the hard way.

"We just thought we could turn it on when we wanted to," he said. "We certainly seemed to do that in the first half. [But] we didn't prepare ourselves to do it in the back-end of the game."

Captain Craig Fitzgibbon offered this: "I think we got bluffed this week. Everyone was saying they're down on troops and we kept saying to ourselves it's going to be a hard game. And everyone kept saying we'll be right, we'll win. Maybe we bought into that a little bit."

Roosters centre Setaimata Sa looks to have been the only casualty from the match and faces a two-week stint on the sidelines with a shoulder injury.

As for Mason, he escaped the Campbell tackle unscathed. "He's only a little guy," he said from the spa in the Roosters' rooms. "He's the right height."

GOLD COAST 32 (J Rapana 2, B Jeffery 2, M Rogers, J Graham tries; M Rogers 4 goals) bt SYDNEY ROOSTERS 28 (A Roberts, B Anasta, W Mason, S Sa, M Aubusson tries; C Fitzgibbon 4 goals) at Sydney Football Stadium. Referee: B Cummins. Crowd: 10,762.