The Sydney Roosters have continued to warm up for the NRL finals by surviving a late scare from North Queensland to claim their fourth-straight win in the NRL.
The Roosters appeared set for a cricket score when Daniel Tupou dived over to kick his team out to a comfortable 18-point lead midway through the second half on Saturday.
But a 58th minute try to Johnathan Thurston kickstarted a Cowboys comeback, and the visitors got within six on Gavin Cooper’s effort not long after.
With momentum on their side, the visitors – who were near-perfect with 33 completions from 34 sets – had a number of looks at the Roosters tryline that had the 9721 Allianz Stadium crowd on edge.
However the Roosters held on to prevail 26-20 and set up a mouth-watering clash with ladder leaders and fierce rivals South Sydney next Friday.
The loss for the Cowboys – as well as Parramatta’s win earlier on Saturday – also means Thurston remains in danger of retiring with the wooden spoon.
The Townsville-based side are now equal with the Eels on 12 points with four games to go.
Latrell Mitchell picked up where he left off from last week’s tryscoring feats when he opened the scoring courtesy of Boyd Cordner’s quick hands in the 12th minute.
Cowboys star Jason Taumalolo responded by stampeding over James Tedesco not long after, before the Roosters kicked ahead on one of the tries of the season by Joseph Manu.
The Roosters centre produced a goose step and fend on Justin O’Neill before flicking back to Blake Ferguson, who kicked ahead for Manu to soar and finish.
Two penalty goals from Mitchell ensured the Roosters were up by eight at the break, and a big score loomed when Blake Ferguson crossed early in second half.
Thurston finished the night with 12 individual points to take him to 2180 career points, moving past Andrew Johns (2176) to become the third
Muzz
Guest
The Chooks missed Keary.
Major Bumsore
Guest
If the Cows play like they played the last 30 and the Broncos play like they did against the dogs , the Broncos might be one step closer to having September off.
Nat
Roar Guru
The FB option is weird. Hampton has played well there and has pace but using him as a replacement hooker hasn't offered much. I think Green is looking for an extra playmaker where they need speed. Clifford had a few good kicks for repeat sets. Next week will be all Broncos baby!!
Nat
Roar Guru
JT is a real problem. His over all stats are only slightly down on when he won the Dally M, but he's the problem. He misses a few tackles, he has never been noted for it but no where near the worst in the comp, not even the worst in the Cowboys team for Ineffective or tackle efficiency. He has "selfishly" set up 20 tries this season and leads the league in LBA and directly contributed to over 200 of the Cowboys total 320pts. When the everybody sees him having a game like last night, Rob calls it "Fake News" just to sell papers to us "plebs". Yep, JT is a real problem.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
Very happy with the Cows second half. Some purpose in the running and finally after 20 rounds some freaking offloads .What took ya so long? JT running like old . In fact if we had a bloomin fullback we could have won that game. Hess breaks through only to find no one in support. Billy would have been there. Teddy would have been there . Even Corey Thompson would be there but no Cows player within 10metres. Oh well. If Green tells his players just one more time to take the two when they are behind by 6 he deserves the naughty corner .My memory tells me it has never worked for us.( I stand to Be corrected but even ignored it worked once it is still dumb). If we play the whole game like that second half we have a chance against the Broncs. A win there would sweeten up a littlle of what has been a bitter year.
Rob
Guest
Agree the Roosters worked the edges and played to the strengths of Mitchell, Ferguson, Manu, Cordner and Tedesco. To much speed and strength for their Cowboys opponents. The Cowboys forwards were probably superior for much of the game but Cronks direction and kicking game helped the Roosters get 26 point which is enough to beat the Cowboys 2018 one out slow attacking structure. Green needs to give Taumalolo and some of his forwards a licence to pass and off load. Maybe they need to look at bring JT13 of the bench as first interchange 15 min in and getting to play longer minutes at the back end? I’d like to see Clifford take over at first receiver and do a lot more of the kicking and passing. Time for Dunn and Mosby to be given a go of the bench ahead of Femsom and Linnet. Tuala Clifford and Martin are getting better working together in defence. JT is a real problem unfortunately in defence. He is really struggling to make effective stops and it’s affecting those around him.
3 recalcitrant monkeys
Guest
Anyone questioning what Cronk brings to the roosters just needs to look at the left edge trys last night the double hit up on the left pulling clifford to marker leading to trys, classic Cronk .the cowboys bench really did fail to have a impact compared to the starting pack which outplayed the roosters when they were on the field when they had the possession . Jt looks the goods again running the ball and it makes a big difference to the attack especially with the big boppers going forward but missed tackles in the back line has been a problem for us this year and has cost us crucial points in the last few games .the roosters out side backs really showed thier class and work ethic last night and it was the difference in the end ..
stevesyd
Roar Rookie
All was going well for the Roosters until 15 mins into the 2nd half when the refs finally penalised them and warning that more was to come for holding down too long in tackles. When the Cows got going they made inroads through the middle and the roosters forwards became rattled and more as the game progressed. The roosters forwards were shot and the final siren saved them but had the ref had rightfully penalised them for that 10 sec holding down in the last tackle of the game, who knows what might have come from that. Every game is different but will be interesting to see if they can handle 80 mins of the Souths forwards up the middle and Damien Cook feeding off their go forward momentum as the game progresses with fatigue setting in.