The North Queensland Cowboys have turned on a dominating performance at 1300 Smiles Stadium, defeating the hapless Newcastle Knights in Round 13 by a massive 30 points.
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The Knights, by some miracle actually looked to be in the contest throughout the first quarter of an hour, but very quickly found out the Cowboys – even with players backing up from State of Origin – were a class above them.
Newcastle’s forward pack were the main reason they were in the game early on, with Daniel Saifiti, Pauli Pauli and the ever present Jeremy Smith being the men to get them rolling early.
It wasn’t without risk though, as they looked to spread the ball and get their outside backs involved – Nathan Ross in particular was strong during the first half.
Whtaever the Knights pulled out of the hat though wasn’t enough to break the Cowboys line and they were overwhelmed pretty quickly as the Cowboys, with Matt Scott, James Tamou and Jason Taumalolo playing staring roles took over control.
Johnathan Thurston and Lachlan Coote were fantastic all game long, while Ray Thompson was the beneficiary for a few tries with Michael Morgan having to sit out with a concussion sustained on Wednesday Night.
Once the Cowboys got on top of things they never looked back, becoming ruthless in their approach and getting all players involved – their bench again providing a hell of a lot in the way of running metres.
The first try of the game was very much against the run of play as Antonio Winterstein scored in the corner from a beautiful Lachlan Coote cut out ball.
Cory Denniss would hit back for Newcastle with a full field try. It was a kick from the Cowboys on the attack with Ross managing to break the line and then pass to Denniss in a 2 on 1 situation who would streak away to score.
It didn’t take long for the Cowboys to get the lead back though with Ray Thompson dummying right, taking on the line and running straight through the hole for an easy as you like try.
Gavin Cooper would then go from dummy half on the last play, running the ball and as proven by the bunker scoring the try.
The Cowboys then added insult to injury for the Knights at the back end of the first half, with Ray Thompson scoring a second try off a great Jake Granville inside ball and John Asiata flat pass.
At halftime, the score was 24-6.
It was clear coming out of the break the Knights would have to start strong, and probably score first but they did neither giving away penalties and making errors – fumbling and bumbling their way to a monster deficit on the scoreboard.
It took just five minutes for the Cowboys to get the scoring underway in the second half through Jake Granville, who really played an excellent 40 minutes. John Asiata turned into an oversized halfback, fending off a few players before firing off a beautiful flat ball for Granville to put the foot down, step around Gagai and score under the sticks.
Kyle Feldt then added a try to his name off a beautiful Lachlan Coote cut out ball.
Again, it was the Knights giving away penalties, making errors and looking less than interested in defence that allowed the Cowboys to continue racking up the score.
North Queensland then brought up 40 through Rory Kostjaysin. After a few failed barge over efforts, he went from dummy half through some incredibly soft defence.
The Knights managed to hit back with a few consolation tries off some very nice plays to Jake Mamo from long range, and Lachlan Fitzgibbon off a Trent Hodkinson grubber kick in the dying moments.
That was all broken up by Kyle Feldt crossing for his second try, in an effort that looked like it belonged on the training paddock.
So, the Cowboys get a big win backing up from Origin and continue their march towards September as the Knights stay glued to the bottom.
Final score
North Queensland Cowboys 46
Newcastle Knights 16
Stats
Tries: Cowboys (8), Knights (3)
Goals: Cowboys (7/8), Knights (2/3)
Possession: Cowboys (58%), Knights (42%)
Completions: Cowboys (36/41), Knights (20/29)
All Runs: Cowboys (182), Knights (134)
All Run metres: Cowboys (1827), Knights (1185)
Line Breaks: Cowboys (10), Knights (2)
Offloads: Cowboys (11), Knights (9)
Tackles: Cowboys (257), Knights (327)
Missed tackles: Cowboys (17), Knights (44)
Penalties: Cowboys (7), Knights (4)
Errors: Cowboys (5), Knights (10)
The Roar’s NRL MVP votes
3 – Lachlan Coote
2 – Matthew Scott
1 – Johnathan Thurston
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