North Queensland Cowboys hold off gutsy St George Illawarra Dragons at WIN Stadium

NO Johnathan Thurston? No worries. The Cowboys fought hard without their Origin stars, upsetting the Dragons on Saturday night.

WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA - JULY 04: Kane Linnett of the Cowboys is tackled during the round 17 NRL match between the St George Illawarra Dragons and the North Queensland Cowboys at WIN Stadium on July 4, 2015 in Wollongong, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

THERE is life without Johnathan Thurston.

The Cowboys have engineered one of their best wins this season, beating fellow top-four club St George Illawarra 18-12 in Wollongong.

It was the Cowboys’ seventh straight away win.

On the back of a Kane Linnett double, the team that was once unbackable in Sydney now has a better record away from Townsville than at home.

The Cowboys have two wins from three games without Thurston this season and on Saturday night they completed more than 90 per cent of their sets.

North Queensland imploded against Cronulla the previous week without Thurston, losing despite holding an 18-point lead in the first half.

Coach Paul Green said his star half’s omission was “not worth talking about”.

It was — and still is — worth talking about, especially as now they have shown how good their depth is.

Peter Mata'utia of the Dragons is tackled by the Cowboys defence.

The Cowboys proved they have the defensive resolve to challenge teams without Thurston and Origin cohorts Matt Scott, Michael Morgan and James Tamou.

“A massive win for us given the players we have out,” Green said.

“It is not about whether we are home or away.

“It is about us as a team understanding what we need to do.

“It is something I have worked hard at as a coach from when I started, and it took a while for the boys to get what I was on about.

“The travel takes it out of us physically, but we have delved into that and believe we now have a good routine about how we deal with that.”

Justin O'Neill of the Cowboys is tackled.

St George Illawarra were also down on troops.

Josh Dugan and Trent Merrin were on Origin duty for NSW while the club has been rocked by injury.

For the Cowboys, it was only the second time Robert Lui and Ray Thompson had combined in the halves.

They controlled the game well until a spectacular try from Mark Ioane, who scored on his debut for the Dragons, brought the home team back into it.

They had a chance to tie the game in the 77th minute when they broke free in a 40m burst but Jake Granville ran Benji Marshall down to ice the game.

The Dragons have now lost four straight matches.

Linnett’s double in the first half gave the Cowboys a 12-6 lead and then a Granville barge-over try extended their lead to 18-6 before the Dragons fought back.

The much-maligned Lui was solid for North Queensland, although he seems destined to leave the club.

Kane Linnett of the Cowboys scores a try in the tackle of Kiti Glymin.

Penrith general manager Phil Gould appears interested in signing Lui judging by his odd Twitter remarks during the game.

Gould asked his followers, “Give me your thoughts on Robert Lui please?”

He received a gush of vitriol and later tweeted, “Certainly some strong views out there”.

Cowboys winger Antonio Winterstein left the game early with a pectoral injury but is expected to be available for their next game following the bye.

Euan Aitken of the Dragons celebrates his try.

NORTH QUEENSLAND 18 (K Linnett 2 J Granville tries E Lowe 3 goals) bt ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 12 (E Aitken M Ioane tries G Widdop 2 goals) at WIN Stadium. Referee: Matt Cecchin, Gavin Reynolds. Crowd: 11,813.

Re-live the action here:

Originally published as North Queensland Cowboys hold off gutsy St George Illawarra Dragons at WIN Stadium