Johnathan Thurston remains winless against Tigers in Sydney after 20-12 defeat at Leichhardt
THE air is back in the tyres and the bus is motoring again.After three successive losses, Wests Tigers roared back on Thursday night with a win over North Queensland led by an unstoppable Esan Marsters.
Tigers
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tigers. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE air is back in the tyres and the bus is motoring again.
After three successive losses, Wests Tigers roared back on Thursday night with a 20-12 win over North Queensland in front of 13,127 raucous fans at Leichhardt Oval.
Defeat has continued a wretched run of 13 consecutive losses for Cowboys superstar Johnathan Thurston against the Tigers in Sydney.
LATE MAIL: Round 10 team changes
JOHNS ON PONGA: Witness the berth of a superstar
CRUCIAL: Mansour makes a mountain of sense
It was a pivotal victory for a team that had been on a slippery slide for the past three weeks. The Tigers have now cemented their top-eight spot with a 6-4 record after 10 rounds.
Conversely, the Cowboys have now lost seven of their 10 games, with finals football hopes already in question.
“It was definitely a big game for us tonight, for a number of reasons,” Tigers coach Ivan Cleary said. “Not having a win for a few weeks and coming here, hoping we’d get a good crowd.
“It really important we played well, which we did. To get the win as well, it was a bit of a relief actually.
“I wasn’t overly concerned (about the three losses) but you don’t want to lose another one, you don’t want it to become a habit.
“You want to play well and we hadn’t given ourselves a good enough chance in the last two weeks.”
In the first game of rugby league’s indigenous round, the Tigers scored four tries to two in a deserved win.
It was Benji Marshall’s first game back at Leichhardt in five years.
“We shot ourselves in the foot,” Cowboys coach Paul Green said. “We just didn’t control the ball well enough; less than 50 per cent completion rate in the second half. They were in the 90s – that sums it up.
“I thought our energy and urgency, the way we went about it, was good. If anything, we were just a little bit too tight, in too much of a hurry.”
Cowboys forward Scott Bolton took his place in the side despite being charged with indecent assault following a night out in Bondi last weekend, and was jeered with his first carry from the kick off.
He was booed with virtually each of his 11 hit-ups as he stuck to the task and ran for 94m, making 30 tackles.
“I thought he handled it really well,” Green said. “I was really proud of the team and the way they have rallied around him. I thought he handled it well tonight. It was obviously a really tough week for him, personally.”
Two quick tries — including a runaway Luke Brooks four-pointer — got the Tigers ahead 8-0 early. They led 8-6 at half-time and scored first in the second half, a simple through-the-hands play from a scrum win with winger David Nofoaluma sliding over out wide.
But a Benji Marshall kick rebounded off Gavin Cooper’s foot and into the arms of Antonio Winterstein, who ran 65m to level the scores at 12-all.
The Tigers produced a near-perfect second half with the football — completing 20 from 21 sets — to lay the platform for victory.
North Queensland looked good at times but their second-half error count was horrendous. At one point, they completed just five of 14 sets.
It was a miracle they stayed in touch for so long.
A Marsters penalty goal midway through the second half edged the Tigers ahead again before a Marsters try 10 minutes from the end sealed the win and sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Brooks, Mahe Fonua, Russell Packer and Corey Thompson were best for the home side.
“We are a re-building team,” Cleary said ahead of next week’s possible clash with his son Nathan as he looks to return from a knee injury for Penrith.
Luck again deserted tough Cowboys forward Shaun Fensom, who came from the field in the 41st minute after dislocating his elbow.
Fensom was working his way back to form after suffering a horror leg break in last year’s grand final loss to Melbourne.
“We defended extremely well for the amount of ball that we coughed up,” Thurston said. “It was just taking too much energy away from us. You can’t compete.”
WESTS TIGERS 20 (L Brooks E Marsters D Nofoaluma M Watene-Zelezniak tries E Marsters 2 goals) bt NORTH QUEENSLAND 12 (T Martin A Winterstein tries J Thurston 2 goals) at Leichhardt Oval. Referee: Gerard Sutton, Matt Noyen. Crowd: 13,127.