The Dragons have made their return to the NRL’s top eight on Saturday night, claiming a 4-point wind over a North Queensland Cowboys missing some Origin stars.
REPORT: DRAGONS IN TOP 8 WITH WIN OVER COWBOYS
Final score
Dragons 14
Cowboys 10
The St George Illawarra Dragons host the North Queensland Cowboys in Round 12 at WIN Stadium. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:50pm (AEST).
The Cowboys thumped the Dragons 36-0 the last time the two teams met in Round 5 this year in Townsville. Despite sitting in the bottom half of the ladder, the Dragons are slight favourites for this clash with the fourth-placed Cowboys.
Both sides are affected by the unavailability of State of Origin players, especially North Queensland. The Cowboys have Johnathan Thurston, Michael Morgan, Matt Scott and Justin O’Neill all in camp with the Maroons, and James Tamou with the Blues.
The Dragons have Josh Dugan on duty with the Blues, but Tyson Frizell is available after being cut from Laurie Daley’s squad.
Ray Thompson and Jahrome Hughes will play in the halves for North Queensland, both with huge shoes to fill. Hughes is 21 years old and has played just one first grade game. That was with the Titans back in 2013.
Javid Bowen comes into the centres for the Cowboys for O’Neill, and Ben Hannant and Scott Bolton have been promoted from the interchange bench to start in place of Scott and Tamou. Rory Kostjasyn and Coen Hess come onto the North Queensland bench.
For the Dragons, halfback Benji Marshall returns from injury, forcing Josh McCrone onto an extended bench. Jason Nightingale has been moved from the wing to fullback to replace Josh Dugan, with Kurt Mann coming into the team on the wing.
Prediction
St George will never get a better chance to beat the understrength Cowboys than they have this week at home. They need a win to stay in touch with the top eight and should win a close match.
Join The Roar at 7.50pm (AEST) for live score updates and debate in our live blog.
John Coomer
Roar Guru
Thanks for joining me on tonight’s coverage, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave your comments, and make sure you log in for tomorrow’s live Roar blog of the Raiders/Bulldogs clash at 4pm.
John Coomer
Roar Guru
Roar MVP Points 3 – Jason Nightingale: Filling in for Josh Dugan at fullback, Nightingale excelled in both attack and defence. He scored a try and made 150 metres in attack, while being safe under the high ball all night and making important tackles when needed. 2 – Jason Taumololo: The Cowboys’ wrecking ball was at his attacking best tonight, making a game high 209 metres. 1 – Gareth Widdop: The Dragons’ backline looked sharper tonight, scoring three tries off set attacking plays. Widdop combined well with halfback Benji Marshall and his outside men.
John Coomer
Roar Guru
An important win for them, and it wasn't an easy one. The Cowboys were gutsy, even with a depleted line up. The Dragons backline looked good at times tonight.
John Coomer
Roar Guru
Match summary St George 14 Cowboys 10 St George have run out winners at WIN Stadium tonight against a depleted, but gutsy Cowboys team. The Dragons led 10-4 at half-time. Their backs looked slick early in the first half, with fullback Jason Nightingale and winger Kurt Mann both crossing for tries in the first fifteen minutes. The Cowboys fought back to score an important try just before halftime. Winger Kyle Feldt leapt high in the air to take a last tackle Lachlan Coote kick and plant the ball down. He had a strong match tonight, confident under the high ball in both attack and defence, unlike last week’s match against the Broncos. St George generally looked more dangerous in attack in the first half, but the Cowboys’ defence was determined. The second half was almost a reverse, with the Cowboys attack looking the stronger. Jason Taumololo made a number of strong runs to keep the St George defence on the back foot, and the Cowboys kicking game through Lachlan Coote and Ray Thompson earned them a number of repeat sets. Seven minutes after half-time, the Cowboys’ 21-year-old five eighth Jahrome Hughes scored a great individual try to level the scores. Hughes was playing just his second NRL match, filling in for Michael Morgan who is in camp with the Queensland team ahead of next Wednesday night’s first State of Origin match. The game turned into a field position arm wrestle in the last twenty minutes. Referee Grant Atkins used his whistle constantly, blowing 19 penalties in total for the match. The final count favoured the Cowboys 11-8. Dragons’ centre Euan Aitken crossed with 18 minutes to go to put St George back in front. Their defence then held solid for the rest of the match, despite the Cowboys throwing everything at them. Try scorers (St George): Jason Nightingale, Kurt Mann, Euan Aitken Top metres gained (St George): Kalifa Faifai Loa (155), Jason Nightingale (150) Top tacklers (St George): Mitch Rein (56), Joel Thompson (44) Try scorers (Cowboys): Kyle Feldt, Jahrome Hughes Top metres gained (Cowboys): Jason Taumololo (209), Antonio Winterstein (154) Top tacklers (Cowboys): Jake Granville (54), Ben Hannant (39)
jamesb
Guest
Yay! Well done Dragons, 6 and 6 for the season so far. Yes, its not ideal that players like JT can't play. But we all hope that one day, we have 3 rep rounds and no NRL football.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
The risk from missing is very high.
John Coomer
Roar Guru
He made some great runs tonight.
Ken
Guest
Why not the field goal? It would have been an easy one. Would have ensured that N Qld needed to convert. And most importantly would have eaten up time and given the ball back! If they'd missed it would have lost almost nothing. The Cowboys didn't have time for a 7 tackle set I think teams miss the tactical field goal all the time in the last minutes
John Coomer
Roar Guru
Full-time The hooter sounds and its victory for St George! St George 14 Cowboys 10
John Coomer
Roar Guru
79’ The Dragons complete their set 10 metres out from the Cowboys line. They have one last set to pull out a miracle. St George 14 Cowboys 10
John Coomer
Roar Guru
78’ Good attacking set from the Cowboys but the Dragons defence holds again! Kyle Feldt has outleapt the Dragons’ defence on last tackle kicks all night, but they manage to hold him out. St George 14 Cowboys 10
Zedman
Roar Rookie
Marshall's contribution is zilch.
John Coomer
Roar Guru
76’ Dragons’ line defence holds, now back in possession. St George 14 Cowboys 10
John Coomer
Roar Guru
75’ Cowboys grubber on the last and force a repeat set! Drop out St George. St George 14 Cowboys 10
John Coomer
Roar Guru
74’ Intercept by Marshall! He races 20 metres to relieve the pressure on the Dragons. A big let off for St George. St George 14 Cowboys 10
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Massive massive run from Taumalolo the play before that knock down, just freakish.
John Coomer
Roar Guru
73’ Penalty Cowboys. They tap it 10 metres out! St George 14 Cowboys 10
John Coomer
Roar Guru
72’ Faifai Loa knocks down a Cowboys pass to prevent a certain Cowboys try! Cowboys scrum feed 10 metres out. St George 14 Cowboys 10
John Coomer
Roar Guru
71’ Marshall knocks on on the last, turnover on the Cowboys 10 metre line. The Dragons’ looked dangerous in that set. St George 14 Cowboys 10
John Coomer
Roar Guru
70’ Knock on Cowboys, Dragons’ scrum feed on their own 20 metre line. St George 14 Cowboys 10