Maroons tough nut Josh McGuire injured as Cowboys beat Titans
Maroons coach Kevin Walters will be sweating on the condition of Josh McGuire after Queensland’s injury woes continued during the Cowboys’ win over the Titans.
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Maroons coach Kevin Walters will be sweating on the condition of Josh McGuire after Queensland’s injury woes continued in Townsville.
It was like any sibling rivalry between the Titans and Cowboys – scrappy and desperate – but the last minute inclusion of human wrecking ball Jason Taumalolo proved the difference to help the Cowboys to their third win of the season.
North Queensland’s $10 million monster returned to the NRL where he left off and his presence alone helped the Cowboys to a 28-14 win over the Titans.
But the return of Taumalolo was seriously compounded by the injury of front row enforcer McGuire.
The former Bronco was visibly upset as he limped off the field just before the halftime break and was ruled out for remainder of the game with a calf injury.
His injury adds to Walters’ woes with the loss of Origin legend Greg Inglis (retirement) and injuries to Manly’s Daly Cherry-Evans (ankle) and Roosters’ Jake Friend (bicep).
Cowboys coach Paul Green said he hoped McGuire’s injury wasn’t as bad as first thought.
“We’ll assess (the injury) but hopefully it’s not too bad,” Green said.
“It’s probably just a low-grade calf strain but we will assess it over the next couple of days and get a better read on it.
“He’s filthy anytime he comes off the field whether he’s injured or not, so being injured probably made it worse.
“Until we know the extent of it, we can’t really speculate. It would be nice for him to be there (next round) but we will see what happens.”
With McGuire ruled out, the Cowboys didn’t drop their heads as they put on one of their best attacking performances of the season against an error-riddled Titans side.
The 10,655 fans in Townsville weren’t treated to the most amazing rugby league game with 21 errors and 12 penalties within the 80 minutes.
The Cowboys welcomed back Taumalolo, six weeks after he completely ruptured his MCL in Round 2 against the Broncos.
And what a much-needed boost he was, running for a team-high 216m, five tackle busts and scored a try.
The Titans weren’t without their own enforcer with lock Jai Arrow their best player on ground, running for 215m with 35 tackles.
North Queensland will gain some confidence out of the match but they still have plenty of work to do ahead of next week’s clash with ladder-leaders South Sydney.
The Cowboys finished the game with 27 missed tackles and seven errors which they can ill afford against the Rabbitohs.
Green said he was looking forward to the clash against the Bunnies in next week’s Magic Round.
“Any win gives you a confidence boost particularly with the challenges we’ve had so far,” Green said.
“I’m looking forward to the game against Souths actually.”
History will show the Titans are out of premiership contention with no team winning the big dance after starting the season 2-6.
It was always going to be a tough ask for the Titans coming up against their interstate cousins in the north.
The boys on the Coast went into the match on the back of a seven-game losing streak against the Cowboys, with their last win dating back to 2014.
It could well have been a different story for the Gold Coast after the video ref denied two tries in the first half.
Cowboys hooker Jake Granville showed how dangerous he is when he runs from dummy-half and opened the scoring in the 10th minute.
Titans hit back in the 16th through AJ Brimson over, who was brought on in place of Michael Gordon who failed a HIA assessment in the third minute.
North Queensland went into the break with a 12-point buffer, leading 16-4.
Titan backrower Kevin Proctor had his side back into the contest in the second half when he made it 16-10 and Anthony Don scored his sixth consecutive try to bring it to 16-14.
But some John Asiata brilliance helped the Cowboys extend their lead out to 22-14 to notch up their third win of the season.
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