Roar Guru
North Queensland have won without their halves pairing as they defeated St George Illawarra 18-12 at WIN Stadium on Saturday night.
>> MATCH REPORT: Cowboys return to NRL winner’s circle
Facing a depleted St George squad the Cowboys would score three tries to two to record their 12th win out of their last 13 matches.
It started well for them with a try in the opening 2 minutes.
Kane Linnett would score again at WIN Stadium, with his 4th try at the venue, to give the team a 4-0 lead.
They would extend it to 6-0 after 22 minutes before the Dragons leveled with a try to Euan Aitken after 28 minutes.
A brilliant pass from Benji Marshall, and a missed tackle from the Cowboys, gave him the try.
From that moment on, until the 60th minute, it was all the Cowboys as they scored two tries to lead 18-6.
Linnett would score his 2nd try right on half time, before Jake Granville made it a 12 point lead.
This triggered the Dragons into attacking football and it paid off straight away with a try to Mark Ioane.
Making his debut, after signing from the Titans during the week, he would score an acrobatic try in the corner to reduce the margin to six points.
That was as good as it got for the Dragons as they fell short of scoring another try to take it to golden point.
In the last few minutes the Cowboys made two lunging tackles to stop Marshall and Aitken from scoring in the same set.
They now remain in the top two as the Origin series draws to a close this week.
They are also three games clear of the rest of the field.
The Dragons remain in the top four but are starting to fall to the chasing pack.
They have now lost 4 straight matches and will be glad the Origin series is over.
It’s a battle of the top four as the St George Illawarra Dragons take on the North Queensland Cowboys at WIN Stadium tonight. Join The Roar for a live blog of the action from 7:30pm AEST.
Coming off losses in Round 16, to the Sharks and Eels respectively, both will be looking for a win to remain in the hunt for a double chance in the finals.
In the case of the Dragons, they desperately need a win, after losing three straight matches.
Since the Origin series started, on the 27th of May, they have won just once in four matches.
That was a 42-6 win against the Sharks after the 1st Origin match.
Since then they have conceded an average of 21 points to lose their last three matches to the Roosters, the Bulldogs, and the Eels.
The defence, which is still the number 1 statistically in the competition, has started to lapse in the last few weeks.
They were also without Mitch Rein and Jason Nightingale for the match last week.
On the other hand the Cowboys have been the inform team of the competition.
Before last week’s loss they won 11 straight matches.
They also had an 18-0 lead over the Sharks last weekend before conceding the next 24 points.
The Cowboys will look to respond without their halves combination today.
Both Jonathan Thurston and Michael Morgan are out with Origin duty which puts the match in the favour of the Dragons.
Replacing them will be Ray Thompson and Robert Lui, who has another chance to prove himself at the club.
James Tamou and Matt Scott are also out with Origin duty and are replaced by Ben Hannant and Sam Hoare.
The Dragons are also depleted with Origin selection with them missing Josh Dugan and Trent Merrin.
Jason Nightingale returns from injury with Nathan Green and Mitch Rein also returning to the team.
Tyson Frizell, Joel Thompson, and Dylan Farrell are also out for the match.
Yaw Kiti Glymin will make his debut with Will Matthews and Jake Marketo also in the team.
Just who wins this match will be interesting.
Both are severely depleted, so form is virtually thrown out the window.
The Cowboys have also won 5 of the last 12 matches they have played at Win Stadium. That record is better than at other Sydney venues for the Queensland team.
This is a toss of the coin as to who will win. The Dragons though need to win to stop the slide they are having at the moment.
Based on that I predict them to just record a victory over the Cowboys. Expect this match to be close.
PREDICTION – Dragons by 2.