NRL live: Brisbane Broncos vs Penrith Panthers, Cronulla Sharks vs ...

Reece Walsh tries to curl a grubber along the in-goal, but the ball skids off the greasy surface and goes well dead.

Penrith gets a penalty for a high shot to make matters worse for Brisbane.

Ezra Mam's kick is perfectly placed just shy of the tryline and Deine Mariner challenges Dylan Edwards. He may have knocked on in his attempted catch, but he definitely knocks on as he tries to regather in the in-goal.

The Broncos are trying to avoid losing five on the trot, as the Panther look to regroup after a 16-6 loss to the Cowboys last week.

Both teams have their Origin stars back.

Penrith winger Sunia Turuva is 18th man for the Panthers tonight, with Daine Laurie coming into the starting back five and Brad Schneider starting in the halves, pushing Jack Coal back to the bench.

The Broncos are 1-17 except for Xavier Willison replacing Kobe Hetherington in the starting line-up.

It was another tough night at the office for Cronulla halfback Nicho Hynes, who finished with a try, but no try assists, line breaks, line break assists or tackle breaks.

"Nicho's a great player and he's under a bit of pressure at the moment," Gold Coast hooker Sam Verrills tells ABC Sport.

"As the opposition, we had to go after him and I thought we did that really well."

Gold Coast coach Des Hasler breathes a sigh of relief in the coaches' box as the siren sounds on a 20-16 win over the third-placed Sharks.

It wasn't pretty and more than a few errors threatened to cost the Titans, but their defence keeps them in front and denies the Sharks another victory in Coffs Harbour.

It was the sort of game we've come to expect from this Titans outfit — imperfect but gritty — while it was more of the same from Cronulla, which is sliding further and further away from its early-season form.

Offloads, switchbacks, inside balls and eventually a kick, but it ends up with Daniel Atkinson's bat-back trickling into touch.

David Fifita gets through and clatters Atkinson. It might have been high, but Atkinson is bunging it on and getting a gobful from Fifita for his trouble.

The referee tells Atkinson to get up and play the ball.

Just as I praise the defence of the Titans, a lazy kick chase lets Ronaldo Mulitalo jog through and unleash Will Kennedy down the right wing.

David Fifita makes a great chasedown tackle, but the Titans are skint for numbers on the left, and Sifa Talakai sends Hynes over.

Hynes converts to make it 20-16 and the Sharks have four minutes left to find an equaliser or a match-winner.

The Sharks are getting frantic and causing some problems with their offloads, but the Gold Coast defence keeps turning up.

Des Hasler will be thrilled with this effort late.

Braydon Trindall is stopped dead in the middle and Jojo Fifita flattens Ronaldo Mulitalo out wide on back-to-back tackles.

Nicho Hynes appeared to have put them both over for tries there with brilliant passes but the defence was staunch on both occasions.

The Titans are pressuring, Tanah Boyd puts in a grubber and Nicho Hynes traps it with his foot then picks it up, but he knocks on in the slippery conditions.

The Titans get a scrum right on the 10m line.

But, mercifully, David Fifita knocks on a tough pass on the left. Not sure he was expecting it and the ball went behind him a touch.

The Sharks are only down 20-10 with 17 minutes to go.

The Titans' defence doesn't exactly look impregnable, so if the Sharks can hang on to it and get some field position, they're a great chance of fighting back into this one.

Back-to-back penalties given away by Beau Fermor, the first while in possession, and the Sharks spin it right with Braydon Trindall launching a long ball out to Daniel Atkinson to touch down.

Cronulla has a full set on the Titans' line and on three straight tackles they try one-out crash-ball plays in an attempt to barge over and the Titans repel them every time.

Incredibly uninspiring attack from a team that was once one of the most electric sides in the league.

Sam Verrills hits Keenan Palasia with a bullet of a pass and the big man does brilliantly to catch it up behind his right shoulder, spin and crash over just to the right of the posts despite the attention of Will Kennedy.

Gee, this isn't looking good for this Sharks team as Tanah Boyd kicks for a 20-4 lead.

Keano Kini grubbers into the in-goal and Will Kennedy is thumped into touch in-goal by Jojo Fifita.

Braydon Trindall's short dropout goes backwards on the bounce, so the Titans will go on the attack again.

The Titans are pinged for a strip, but Kieran Foran challenges on the advice of David Fifita, who is adamant he didn't strip the ball from Jack Williams. And the replays back him up.

The bunker overturns.

Cronulla gets possession n a great position as Josiah Pahulu knocks on, and the Titans are punished as Nicho Hynes goes into the line, plays short to Briton Nikora, who's well handled by Tanah Boyd, but he gets a hand loose and offloads to Braydon Trindall to touch down.

Nicho Hynes misses the conversion from the right sideline, and the job remains very difficult for the Sharks, but the Titans defence is looking flimsy every time it's challenged on the tryline.

The kick goes up from the Titans and Jesse Ramien is penalised for an escort on Alofiana Khan-Pereira, who hit the deck and was then landed on by Sharks fullback Will Kennedy to boot.

Tanah Boyd pots the penalty goal and the Titans push the lead out beyond two converted tries.