North Queensland Cowboys confident of roping Cronulla Sharks

MIRACLE man Matt Scott says finals nerves won't be a problem for the Cowboys before Saturday's National Rugby League eliminator against Cronulla.

MIRACLE man Matt Scott says finals nerves won't be a problem for the Cowboys before Saturday's National Rugby League eliminator against Cronulla.

After playing do-or-die football for the past six weeks, Scott who declared himself a certainty to return from a broken finger against the Sharks, said they were as ready as anyone for the pressure to perform at Allianz Stadium. 

North Queensland had to win their last six regular-season games to scrape into the finals and defied all the critics to do it. 

"This is the footy we’ve been playing ... since the Broncos game, so we’re treating it as one of those games," said Scott, referring to the Round 20 loss to Brisbane that left the Cowboys sitting 13th on the ladder. 

"It's not hard to keep (that intensity) up because we’ve been winning, that always makes it easier.

"It's nothing out of the ordinary for the side, we’ve got that footy in us, so it’s not like it’s been a massive over-exertion."

130701S Matthew Scott

Prop Scott was at long odds to play in the first week of the finals after badly breaking his finger against Cronulla 13 days ago. 

But despite needing surgery to insert a plate, North Queensland’s gutsy co-captain could not be sidelined.

After a positive fitness test on Thursday afternoon, Scott said on Friday he did not believe it would adversely affect his game. 

"There’s always going to be some pain there but at the moment it’s pretty manageable," he said.

"I wouldn’t be playing if I wasn't confident in it and I did enough training on Thursday to be fairly confident."

That includes any dirty tactics Cronulla players might use to test Scott’s pain threshold.

In the game that he broke his finger, the 28-year-old Test and State of Origin representative was penalised when he lashed out at Shark John Morris, who gave his left middle finger "a bit of a squeeze" soon after he had it taped up. 

"It’s going to be pretty hard for them to target, it’s only pretty small, but hopefully it won’t cop too much attention," Scott said. 

"I'm sure they'll be concentrating on bigger things than my finger."

A decision on whether Jason Taumalolo or 18th man Ashton Sims play will be made this afternoon.

While the Cowboys won without Scott last weekend, fellow co-captain Johnathan Thurston said his presence would be a huge boost.

"That's a big plus for us," the five-eighth said. 

"He's a big part of our team going forward and brings that intimidation factor in the front row with big Jimmy (Tamou) too, so it’s great to have them there and hopefully we can get the job done."

Thurston also missed training sessions this week after suffering a cork to his knee last week but said he would be fine to play.