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North Queensland Cowboys 39
Cronulla Sharks 0
In one of the most dominating performances of the season, the North Queensland Cowboys have knocked the Cronulla Sharks out of the NRL Finals with a complete block out, holding them to zero while they ran on 39 points themselves.
From the moment the first ball was kicked, right through until the moment the final siren sounded at 1300 Smiles Stadium in Townsville the Cowboys dominated the game and were never behind on the scoreboard. The game was also played at a frantic pace making it hard for the Sharks to wrestle back any sort of control throughout.
This frantic pace was led along by the Cowboys forwards. Man of the match Matt Scott led the way with a man of the match performance while he was backed up by the likes of Jason Taumalolo, James Tamou and Gavin Cooper.
The pace of the forward pack of the Cowboys allowed the creative players, Johnathan Thurston, Michael Morgan and Lachlan Coote to completely take over the game and they never looked back as they piled the points on the hapless Sharks. Jake Granville also added plenty of spark to the side from hooker, particularly during the second half.
There really wasn’t anything to like about the Sharks performance tonight. They gave away countless errors and penalties and ended up having to make more than an extra 100 tackles.than their opponents.
Whenever they did get near the Cowboys line, which really wasn’t often they blew their opportunities with a poor kicking game, under intense pressure from the Cowboys defensive line which seemed to be up in their faces all game long and it didn’t matter where they were on the field.
The only spark for the Sharks seemed to come from Ben Barba when he was injected into the game during the second half. Michael Gordon at times did some good things as did Michael Ennis.
The scoring opened in the third minute with a penalty goal for the Cowboys before Matt Scott bounded back from the kick off and put Gavin Cooper through a hole who ran to half way. The Cowboys rolled up the field and Michael Morgan would score the opening try of the game, hardly getting touched.
About 10 minutes later, the Sharks made an error coming out of their own end and Justin O’Neill would score for the Cowboys off some good play.
Scott Bolton would then score for the Cowboys in the 32nd minute after putting the pressure on the Sharks for an extended period of time. Granville darts out of dummy half running backwards and to his left before he passed to Bolton who was running on a completely different angle to score for himself.
Thurston slotted a field goal right on the stroke of half time and gave the Cowboys a 19 point lead to take into the break. At that point, it did look like the game might have already been over.
The Sharks would need a total turn around after the break, however it wasn’t to be as Michael Morgan scored his second try of the game in the 46th minute. It was the excess build up of pressure, and a couple of dummies from Morgan that led to the try being scored very easily in the end.
The scoring continued 15 minutes later when Antonio Winterstein crossed for a try off a simple cross field kick from Thurston and bat back by Gavin Cooper.
The next try to Kyle Feldt would be almost unbelievable. After Asiata got an offload away from almost under the posts, Thurston through it through his legs tunnel ball style and Feldt came off his wing to score.
Ethan Lowe would close out the scoring with a try just three minutes before time.
So with that, the Cowboys are off to take on the Melbourne Storm next week in Melbourne with what should be a cracker of a game, while the Sharks go bouncing out of the finals in embarrassing fashion.
The North Queensland Cowboys want to avoid crashing out of the NRL finals in straight sets when they take on the Cronulla Sharks, who are coming off a strong win last week. Join The Roar for live coverage from 7:20pm (AEST).
The hosts for this clash were involved in one of the games of the season last weekend when they took on the Brisbane Broncos in the second qualifying final.
A fast-paced game ensued, and despite going down by a narrow margin the Cowboys can take plenty of positives away from the match.
The fact they were able to hold an incredibly high intensity from the first whistle until the clock ticked over to 80 minutes shows they are a huge chance of winning this comp.
The Sharks meanwhile came up against last year’s premiers South Sydney at Allianz Stadium and hardly had a problem knocking them off.
Cronulla were in red-hot form in the lead-up to the finals and, despite a Round 26 loss, deserve to be in the semis, with a huge opportunity in front of them.
In team news, for the Cowboys Rory Kostjaysin comes onto a five-man bench, with Robert Lui dropping back into jersey number 18.
The Sharks are one of the few teams who have a good record playing in Townsville, having won 12 from 20 games there. They also carry the edge against the Cowboys coming into this game, having beaten them twice this season. However, if they are to beat them again a fast start is needed to keep the crowd out of the game.
For the Sharks, it looks to be down to the performance of Jack Bird and Valentine Holmes. Their combination has been incredible this year, coming off the back of the forwards dominating the game.
For that reason, Jason Taumalolo is the Cowboys x-factor. He needs to take ownership of the Cowboys pack, guide them around and – along with Matt Scott, James Tamou and Gavin Cooper – stop the Sharks from dominating.
Regardless, with players such as Bird, Michael Ennis, Johnathan Thurston and Michael Morgan on the ground, this game won’t be over until the siren goes. Neither team can afford to drop their guard late in the clash if they hold a lead.
Prediction
The Sharks will put up a huge fight but the Cowboys are an awesome outfit, and playing on home soil they should have too much.
Cowboys by 4.
Join The Roar for live coverage of the second NRL semi-final from 7:30pm (AEST), and be sure to comment below if you are following the action.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde