The road hasn’t been kind to the North Queensland Cowboys this season but the squad bucked that trend on a cold and damp Thursday night at Belmore during their crucial 24-16 victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs.
The stakes were high in the match with fourth place on the NRL ladder and a second chance during finals footy up for grabs.
The first half saw a tense struggle unfold with both sides displaying tremendous defence which led to a 6-4 Cowboys lead at the break.
An early Bulldogs error led to a Johnathan Thurston penalty kick conversion in the early going, but the home side gained the upper hand a few moments later when second-rower Greg Eastwood intercepted a poorly judged Michael Morgan fifth tackle pass and returned it all the way to the bank for his first try of the season.
The Cowboys struck back on the 19th minute with Morgan making up for his mistake with a simple ball inside to Ethan Lowe leading to points.
A ferocious Cowboys attack dominated possession for the remaining 20 minutes of the half but even with four line dropouts and a couple of penalties going their way they couldn’t crack the stout Bulldogs defence.
With neither side giving an inch defensively you could sense that the team to score next would emerge the victor, and it was Thurston who delved into his seemingly limitless bag of tricks who gave the Cowboys the decisive edge with a sensational show and go that split two Bulldogs defenders leading to an easy four-pointer and a match double for Lowe on the 50th minute to give the Northerners a 12-4 lead.
The margin grew to 18-4 in the 61st minute when future star Coen Hess powered over the line after setting up his try with a great grubber in the previous set giving the Cowboys a repeat six.
With both defensive lines nearing exhaustion in the last 10 minutes of the match a flurry of points were added to the scoreboard starting with former-Cowboy Curtis Rona's try with five minutes left to cut the lead to eight.
But any chance of a late Bulldogs comeback was snuffed out when Jason Taumalolo charged over the gassed Bulldogs line to seal the win on the 77th minute.
To Canterbury’s credit they never gave up hope with Eastwood bagging a double right on the siren to create the end scoreline.
Taumalolo paced both squads with 204 metres gained from 22 runs while Kane Linnett and Scott Bolton continued their strong form with their runs up the park totaling 141 and 139 metres respectively.
Matt Scott showed no signs of rust on his return from injury by clocking up 130 metres from 14 runs to go along with 20 tackles.
But it was Goondiwindi kid Lowe who had his best game of the year right when it was needed, in addition to his try-scoring double he also amassed 196 metres to go along with 28 tackles and a pair of line breaks.
Not much separated the two squads on the night with the Cowboys simply making better use of their opportunities on attack whereas the Bulldogs seemed somewhat lost at times on the points scoring end.
The win saw the Northerners leap into fourth spot, but they’ll need to back up their excellent performance at home in Townsville during Round 26 against the Gold Coast Titans to cement their current positioning heading into the finals.