Lauren Brown has welcomed the opportunity to renew her partnership with Emily Bass after being confirmed as the Titans chief playmaker for the NRLW season.
Brown played hooker for Queensland in Origin, slotting the winning field goal in Game II to send the series to a decider, and started last season for the Titans in the dummy half role until being called on to play halfback due to injuries.
However, after a starring performance in Sunday's 18-10 defeat of the Dragons. which propelled Brown to the top of the Dally M leaderboard after Round 1, Gold Coast coach Karyn Murphy said she was now the first choice No.7.
Bass in a boat for Try July
“Loz (Brown) this time last year was playing mostly nine for us, and she plays that at Origin, but in our side, she's a seven, and she's working hard each week at training in that role and controlling the team," Murphy said.
"I thought she was very good at doing that."
Brown had her fingerprints across all of her team's points as the 2023 grand finalists opened their 2024 account and put their premiership rivals on notice early in their quest to go one better.
Bass, who missed last year's grand final with a shoulder injury, and was also injured in Origin I and ruled out of the remainder of the series, bounced back to finish three tries laid on by Brown on Gold Coast's left edge.
Loz Brown picks up where she left off
Brown sat down behind Bass after the winger's second try, and they began rowing together in one of the Titans' Olympic themed try celebrations.
The pair spent time in the past together playing rugby sevens for Queensland Reds and Bond University, but Brown did not play in the halves in the four games Bass played last season before suffering her season ending injury.
Brown said she was now looking forward to building on their combination in her role as Titans halfback.
“I love Bass. We used to play sevens together years ago, so it’s really cool that she's back on my edge," Brown said.
“She's had a few injuries the last six months, but she's just so resilient and determined to get back, so it's really cool to see her finish the tries the way she did."
Bass makes a splash in Round 1
With the Titans squad remaining similar to last year, Murphy said they were looking to quickly strike combinations among the playing group in order to create a free-flowing attack.
“It's building on what we had last year," she said. "We looked at that, and with the season we had, we didn't need to change a whole lot. We just need to be better at what we do.
"It is better going into this year, and we've still got, obviously, some work to do out of round one. But the combinations are there, and a lot of the girls returned from last year, so that's definitely helpful."
Titans go fishing for Try July
Titans skipper Georgia Hale commended the club's ability to maintain the strong core of players from last year as a means to build a powerhouse NRLW club.
“We look at our squad and we've retained most of our girls so you can build off what happened last year," Hale told jetwinvip.com.
"There's definitely been ways where we've been able to start again, but it's nice to see similar combinations from the foundation and the framework that we had last year to build off."