Indigenous trio the winners on a losing team

Click for more photos Tigers pip the Titans Chris Heighington is tackled by Bodene Thompson. Photo: Getty Images IN THE midst of NAIDOC Week - the annual celebration of Aboriginal culture - it was only fitting that the Gold Coast Titans' three NRL Indigenous All Stars enjoyed putting on a display to do their team and their people proud in a side that lost by only one point. Preston Campbell of the Kamilaroi at fullback, Scott Prince of the Kalkadoon at halfback and Greg Bird of the Kamilaroi at five-eighth were willing warriors for the Titans as they tackled the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown Sports Stadium. During the week both clubs had engaged in NAIDOC Week activities with their local communities and last night's pre-match entertainment included Aboriginal hip-hop troupe Stunna Set. Advertisement: Story continues below On Wednesday night the crowd at Origin three was treated to Advance Australia Fair sung in both English and the language of the Darug people of the Sydney region. Last night's game was on the land of another Sydney region tribe, the Tharawal. The Titans, of course, have become synonymous with championing reconciliation and Aboriginal talent. Campbell was the first player signed by the Titans and it was Campbell and Titans managing director Michael Searle who drove the concept of the Indigenous All Stars-NRL All Stars game that was held Rosetta Stone V3 so successfully on the Gold Coast in February to pay tribute to the massive contribution Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have made to rugby league. As one of the smallest men in rugby league, Campbell copped his usual heavy physical punishment last night - slammed into the ground in a tackle in in the 29th minute - but, as ever, he bounced back to his feet in an energetic display in bright yellow head gear. He ran the ball back strongly from defence, defused some dangerous kicks and loose balls with great agility and in the first half made a fantastic zig-zagging run up the middle of the park to beat several Tigers defenders. It probably would have led to a Titans try if centre Matt Rogers had held onto Campbell's pass. He had another similar run in the second half. However, it was also Campbell's inability to gather one awkwardly bouncing ball that led to the Tigers scoring their first try to make it 6-6 after 15 minutes. The first try of the match, scored from the first set of six after the kick-off, went to Rogers when he dived on a clever grubber kick from Prince. The Tigers' second try, 10 minutes from fulltime, also came from a Prince grubber, which winger Kevin Gordon dived on to score in the left-hand corner. But the standout of the trio was Bird. You would never have guessed from his energetic display - particularly in the first half - that he had played a hard game of Origin just two nights before. A lovely chip kick from Bird early in the game was regathered on the bounce by Rogers and could have led to a try if the pass inside to Gordon hadn't been dropped. Bird also made some intelligent kicks for territory and one wickedly spiralling rain-maker of a bomb to test the Tigers defence. It was a bullocking run from Bird in the game's first set of six that helped get the Titans down near the Tigers's line to score after less than two minutes of play. The real highlight of Bird's play, however, was his rugged tackling.

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