Roar Guru
The North Queensland Cowboys are riding high with eight straight victories, and they’ll be a big chance to make it nine when the struggling Manly Sea Eagles come to town on Saturday Night. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:30pm.
The Cowboys are the form side of the competition, and they’ve looked close to unbeatable for eight weeks now. Despite a couple of close calls along the way, the Cowboys are looking like Premiership favourites after 11 rounds, and it’ll take a good side to stop them.
The Sea Eagles will celebrate their 1,500th NRL match this weekend, but they couldn’t have picked a tougher matchup to mark the occasion.
It’s been a dramatic fall from the top for the Sea Eagles, who only have three wins to their names so far in 2015. They have been improved in recent weeks though, and they took a tough loss to the Panthers in Round 10.
They’ll need the Cowboys to show a little complacency if they want a chance this weekend.
The Cowboys have all their Origin stars returning, with Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott, Michael Morgan and James Tamou all returning to the side. John Asiata, Rory Kostjasyn and Patrick Kaufusi have all been named on an extended bench.
The Sea Eagles lost Daly Cherry-Evans to injury in their loss to the Panthers, but they get Kieran Foran back this weekend in the No.7 jersey. Tom Symonds will play five-eighth for the third straight game.
The Sea Eagles have had the longest injury list in the league this season, but they haven’t been playing good enough football to get the results regardless. A win in Townsville would have them full of confidence, and this is still a side that has enough talent to make a run at the finals.
Prediction
Although a win would help the Sea Eagles, I just can’t see it happening. The Cowboys have been red-hot to say the least, and they should romp to another victory on Saturday Night.
Cowboys by 20