Cowboys down Titans 26-14 to keep faint NRL premiership hopes alive

THERE were nearly as many penalties as points, but a scrappy triumph has revived North Queensland’s faint premiership hopes.

Cowboys players celebrate a try against the Titans.

IT was ugly. It was scrappy. There were nearly as many penalties as points. But it was a win.

The Cowboys are back and the rest of the NRL is on notice after North Queensland fought its way to a drought-breaking 26-14 victory against the Gold Coast Titans.

The 12-point win snapped a five-match losing streak and kept North Queensland’s faint premiership hopes alive.

This was far from the slick, potent unit the Cowboys have transformed into during coach Paul Green’s reign.

They hardly had a chance to shine in a frustrating contest where 23 penalties were blown.

But it was the victory North Queensland needed to loosen the shackles and find the mojo that took them to a fairytale grand final appearance last year.

“It’s been a while since we’ve felt what that’s like,” Green said.

Jason Taumalolo makes a break and avoids the tackle of Titans hooker Mitch Rein to score a try. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Jason Taumalolo celebrates after scoring a try for the Cowboys.

“It’s the start. We’ll certainly get a lot of confidence out of that. The first win was never going to be our best ever game.

“They got some confidence and we saw what individuals are capable of. We saw the real Cowboys.

“We know we’re not there yet. It’s still a long season, but it was a great step in the right direction.”

Put simply, the Cowboys have too many quality players to be a finals flop in 2018.

Any team with Test stars Johnathan Thurston, Jason Taumalolo, Michael Morgan and Matt Scott cannot be written off, no matter what the record books say.

The Cowboys have plenty of work to do after starting the season with a 2-5 record, but Green has made a habit of defying the odds in Townsville.

“It’s been a pretty tough five weeks,” Scott said.

Johnathan Thurston runs the ball for the Cowboys. Picture: Zak Simmonds

“We’ve stuck pretty solid together. We’ve tried really hard.

“There’s no doubts about the team we’ve got. This is a step in the right direction.

“We’ve made it very hard for ourselves. We need to improve a lot to compete with the best teams.

“We’ve definitely got it in us to improve on that and string a couple of wins together.”

The 12,885 at 1300SMILES Stadium were subjected to one of the most painful first halves of footy seen this season.

Referees Grant Atkins and Alan Shortall would have been lucky to still have peas in their whistles at the break after blowing 15 first half penalties.

The Cowboys were the beneficiary of 10 penalties and after kicking three goals, North Queensland finally crossed when Ben Hampton exposed the Gold Coast’s new-look left edge of Kane Elgey and Phillip Sami.

Kyle Feldt scores a try in the corner for the Cowboys. Picture: Zak Simmonds

North Queensland took a 16-2 lead into the break after Kyle Feldt scored with seven seconds to go in the first half, making the most of an error by Titans fullback Michael Gordon.

The Titans struggled to build momentum and any hope of a comeback was extinguished when Jason Taumalolo and Coen Hess used their brute strength to give the Cowboys a 26-2 lead.

Ash Taylor got the Titans on the board with seven minutes to go and the Cowboys would have been nervous when Jarrod Wallace barged over.

But the Titans, playing their sixth straight match on the road, looked a tired team and will relish being back at Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday for the first time since Round 1.

The Cowboys, who lost prop John Asiata to a suspected pectoral tear, host the battling Canberra Raiders on Saturday and should make it two-in-a-row to get their premiership quest back on track.

NORTH QUEENSLAND 26 (K Feldt B Hampton C Hess J Taumalolo tries J Thurston 5 goals) bt GOLD COAST 14 (A Taylor J Wallace tries M Gordon 3 goals) at 1300SMILES Stadium. Referee: Alan Shortall, Grant Atkins. Crowd: 12,885