Round 20: Bulldogs vs Cowboys

[Tamwelg]

	vs
Bulldogs		Cowboys

Sat 26 Jul, 7:30PM ANZ Stadium

Mitch Brown Corey Thompson Josh Morris Timoteo Lafai Drury Low Moses Mbye Trent Hodkinson Sam Kasiano Michael Ennis James Graham Josh Jackson Tony Williams Greg Eastwood   Reni Maitua Dale Finucane Pat O'Hanlon Lloyd Perrett Damien Cook Des Hasler

Fullback Wing Centre Centre Wing Five-eighth Halfback Prop Hooker Prop Second Row Second Row Lock   Interchange Interchange Interchange Interchange Interchange Coach

Michael Morgan Matthew Wright Tautau Moga Kane Linnett Antonio Winterstein Robert Lui Johnathan Thurston Ashton Sims Rory Kostjasyn James Tamou Tariq Sims Jason Taumalolo Glenn Hall   Ray Thompson Scott Bolton John Asiata Sam Hoare   Paul Green

[TITAN PETE]

Cowboys win on the road again
By Dan Walsh
NRL.com
9:43pm Sat 26th July, 2014



A few weeks back it was the only tune the Cowboys knew, but with their second away victory on the trot – a 20-12 triumph over the Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium – North Queensland have put their roadhouse blues well and truly behind them.

Having secured a first away win of the year last week against the lowly Sharks on their home turf, the Cowboys dusted a much sterner proposition in the high-flying Bulldogs, ended an eight-year barren run at the Olympic venue to push themselves back up into the top eight for the first time since mid-May.

They did so without the services of NSW Origin prop James Tamou for the best part of an hour, with the Cowboys enforcer the victim of friendly fire from teammate Ashton Sims and sent off to hospital for scans on a neck injury as result.

Filling the 113kg void left by Tamou was who else but Johnathan Thurston, typically outstanding in laying on two tries and booting the match-clinching penalty from 30 metres out in the 78th minute.

Up until that point the Bulldogs continually threatened a reprise of their clutch-play exploits from earlier in the year, with a 61st-minute try to Josh Jackson setting the home side up for another of their famed grand stand finishes, only for the visitors to hold on for just their second win in eight games against the boys from Belmore.

Des Hasler's pre-game shuffling of the blue and white deck chairs to accommodate the return of fullback Sam Perrett backfired for the Bulldogs, with youngster Moses Mbye caught out a number of times in defence in the centres, while Tony Williams also failed to recapture the glory of previous performances in the halves when switched to five-eighth – though throughout the opening 20 minutes it looked as though the 9,873 in attendance were set to witness another Hasler masterstroke.

With the home side making all the running it was Mitch Brown, shifted to the wing to make room at the back for Perrett, who first had the scorers up out of their chairs in the 13th minute. He was the benefactor of a slick catch-and-pass movement from youngster Mbye, after opposite number Matthew Wright had been denied by a matter of inches when he caught an inch of the touch-in-goal line while touching down four minutes earlier.

If Wright was slighted by being denied the opening four-pointer, he went about rectifying it in the most emphatic fashion possible with a try-scoring double in the space of four minutes that pushed the Cowboys out as 10-6 frontrunners by the 28th minute.

On both occasions the wingman was the benefactor of superb lead-up play from his inside men. First it was a pass from Michael Morgan, who shrugged off a fairy-floss soft attempted tackle from Mbye to feed Wright with an unhindered passage to the line, and then a chip kick from Thurston that came with the type of bounce most wingers have to wait until they've died and gone to heaven for.

A penalty shot from 25 metres out from Thurston ensured the visitors took a six-point lead into the sheds, a position they had never lost from on the four previous occasions they had led at half-time at ANZ Stadium.

Upon the resumption Thurston was again in the thick of it, this time swinging to the right edge with a sublime cut-out ball landing on the chest of winger Antonio Winterstein, and then converting from near the sideline to push their advantage to double figures in the 47th minute.

A series of mistakes in their own half from the visitors – with Morgan in particular struggling at the back and offering a golden opportunity with a knock on in his own in-goal midway through proceedings – went unpunished by the Bulldogs, who themselves squandered a number of attacking chances.

Jackson's touchdown just past the hour mark – courtesy of a short ball from Trent Hodkinson that saw him pour through a gaping hole on the Cowboys line – drew the Dogs within a converted try, but a penalty against Sam Kasiano with the clock winding down gave Thurston the chance to seal a deserved win for the Cowboys, one that puts them on equal footing with the Broncos, Warriors, Eels and Tigers on 22 competition points.

North Queensland Cowboys 20 (M Wright 2, A Winterstein tries; J Thurston 4 goals) defeated Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 12 (M Brown tries, J Jackson; T Hodkinson 2 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Crowd: 9,873

[TITAN PETE]

Tamou injury sours Cowboys win
By Dan Walsh
NRL.com
7:15am Sun 27th July, 2014


Cowboys enforcer James Tamou was rushed to hospital with a suspected neck injury, adding a sour note to North Queensland's gritty 20-12 defeat of the Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.

The New South Wales and Kangaroos prop was floored by an awkward collision with teammate Ashton Sims as the pair made a tackle on Bulldogs prop James Graham in the 18th minute, and lay prone on the ANZ Stadium turf for several minutes before leaving the field unassisted.

Cowboys officials said after the game that the 25-year-old had felt "pins and needles" down one arm after the incident and was sent for precautionary scans at Westmead Hospital mid-way though the match.

Tamou's injury put a dampener on what was otherwise a ground-breaking win for the Cowboys who after following on from last week's defeated of the Sharks in the Shire recorded consecutive away wins for the first time since late in 2013 when they beat the Panthers and Cronulla.

Sims admitted his fear for Tamou's well-being both at the time of the collision and after the match.

"I was concerned for a good mate," Sims said.

"Rugby league comes second to stuff like that. It's tough out there and it's physical but you look at Jimmy, he's 6-foot-4 and 110 kilos and he can still get hurt.

"I've still got concern for him but hopefully he's doing all right in hospital and hopefully we can go and get a car and go and see him tonight."

The surprise win catapults the Cowboys into the top eight for the first time since Round 10, and skipper Johnathan Thurston, who was instrumental with two try-assists and four conversions admitted his side had taken a significant step forward in recording another win away from Townsville after breaking their drought last week.

"The challenge for us was to back it up," Thurston said.

"It was a good win against Cronulla but all that hard work could've come unstuck if we didn't get the two points tonight so that was the challenge for us to back it up.

"We didn't start the game very well but the middle period of the game we had a high completion rate which got us back in the game and then we tackled our butts off towards the back end of that second half.

"We've snuck into the eight now and the challenge for us is to stay there."

North Queensland coach Paul Green, who indicated forwards Matt Scott (fractured cheekbone) and Gavin Cooper (hip) stood a decent chance of returning for next week's home clash with the Titans, was similarly pleased with the win, though was not so complimentary about the officiating.

"Eight-four penalty count made sure we had to do a lot of tackling," Green said.

"I was pretty disappointed with some of the ruck penalties; we got towelled in the penalty count tonight.

"I know Des (Hasler, Bulldogs coach) came out and mentioned how the ruck was reffed last week in their game.

"Maybe I need to do more whinging through the week."

[Toads]

Pretty ordinary game until the Cowboys opted to step it up a bit. Going by their last couple of games, it's as if it's starting to come together for them this year. I wouldn't mind betting they'll finish in the top 4 again this season.

[TITAN PETE]

It's a bit o a combination of the Cows (JT) finding some form & the Dogs losing form..