Roar Guru
Saturday night NRL action sees the thirteenth placed North Queensland Cowboys play host to the competition front runners the South Sydney Rabbitohs at 1300SMILES Stadium in Townsville. Join us for live scores and commentary from 7.30pm AEST.
It has been a tumultuous week for the Cowboys but also one that may have given the players and staff some closure after having a cloud of speculation hovering over the club for weeks.
The North Queensland club has decided to end the tenure of coach Neil Henry, effective at the completion of the season. With the matter now settled it may allow players and staff alike to concentrate on the job at hand.
The Cowboys sit in thirteenth and have lost three on the trot. It is virtually do or die for the men from up north if they want to make the playoffs in 2013.
They competed well against the Rabbitohs back in Round 9 despite not having much luck and the 28-10 score line is not an indicator of how close the match was. However, the Cowboys don’t have a great record against the Rabbitohs and have not beaten them since 2009.
The Cowboys have made a few changes to their line up including naming debutant Kyle Feldt on the wing.
The Rabbitohs shock loss to the Dragons two weeks ago may have been the proverbial size nine up the Khyber Pass that they needed to whip them back into top gear. They duly obliged and handed the Titans a twenty eight point drubbing last weekend. I don’t foresee any complacency creeping into their game this week either.
The boys from Redfern have lost just three games this season and would be intent on keeping it that way. They have won two of their last three matches at 1300 Smiles and six from eleven overall which is better than most visitors records to the Townsville venue. The Rabbitohs have gone with the same seventeen that took the field last weekend.
Prediction
The Cowboys pack, spear headed by Kangaroo props Scott and Tamou, face the gargantuan task of trying to overcome a cardinal and myrtle battalion of cyborg-esque behemoths from the planet Burgess.
If they can do that then we may see Johnathan Thurston unleash some of his creative wizardry. If not, expect the classy Rabbitohs back line to run amok; I’m leaning to the latter being more likely.
I think the Cowboys game has the propensity for too many errors and that will be what costs them against the methodical monster that is South Sydney.
Rabbitohs by 14.