Round 5
St.George-Illawarra Dragons 16 l. North Queensland Cowboys 20

2008 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Cowboys hold out frustrating Dragons
Sun April 13, 2008
The Cowboys have continued the Dragons miserable season winning 20-16, but not before a late comeback by the home side.

North Queensland captain and halfback Johnathan Thurston had a fine match and needed it following the excellent form of Gold Coast rival Scott Prince so far this season. Whilst Thurston is going to keep his Australian and Queensland jumpers, the form of Prince can't be ignored.

Thurston after the match said, "There's a fair few good halfbacks running around at the moment.

"Princey's in pretty good form but all I can control is how I play and that's the way I seem to play - once the boys rolled forward for us it presented some opportunities."

Cowboys Coach Graham Murray is in no doubt who said be Test halfback and said, "JT answered it as well - they're level pegging but I think JT's the best at the moment."

North Queensland led 8-6 at the break with Thurston scoring in the 18th minute and the Dragons try came from Jamie Soward.

The Cowboys surged ahead in the second half when Anthony Watts and Justin Smith crossed over. The Dragons finally got into gear with quick tries to Jason Nightingale and Stuart Webb to setup a thrilling finish.

However, North Queensland held on for the two points and once against St George Illawarra fell short. Although, there is respite for the Dragons when they take on the out of form Bulldogs next week.

Dragons Coach Nathan Brown said, "The second half we gave away a penalty on tackle five and Thurston's a good player so they keep the ball for the next 10 minutes. I'm not sure if some players understand what they do to the team by committing these simple errors.

"It's just two or three mistakes that turn the flow of the game and they were good enough to turn it into points tonight. The effort is there and we are getting ourself in good positions."

"We have come up short the last three weeks so we need to turn it into a result next week," he added.

Dragons Captain Mark Gasnier echoed Brown's comments and also admitted he was happy with his new role in attack where he played fullback. Gasnier said, "It was good to be involved in attack a bit more

"To be able to pop up in behind the play was good for me.

"We have to start to turn these situations into points on the ladder so we will be up for a big game next week."

DRAGONS 16
Tries (3)
Jamie Soward 30m
Jason Nightingale 65m
Stuart Webb 70m

Conversions (2/3)
Jamie Soward 32m
Jamie Soward 71m

Penalty Goals (0/0)

Goalkickers (2/3)
Mark Gasnier 0 from 1
Jamie Soward 2 from 2

COWBOYS 20
Tries (3)
Johnathan Thurston 18m
Anthony Watts 44m
Justin Smith 57m

Conversions (3/3)
Johnathan Thurston 19m
Johnathan Thurston 45m
Johnathan Thurston 58m

Penalty Goals (1/1)
Johnathan Thurston 6m

Goalkickers (4/4)
Johnathan Thurston 4 from 4

MATCH STATS
Cowboys in brackets
Errors: 12 (13)
Completions: 30/41 (25/34)
Penalties: 10 (6)
Scrums: 7 (6)
Tackles: 324 (303)
1 on 1 Tackles: 12 (23)
Missed Tackles: 30 (40)
Line Breaks: 2 (5)
Offloads: 12 (6)
Runs: 174 (157)
Runs Metres: 1345m (1253m)
Try Assists: 3 (1)
40/20s: 0 (0)
Line Dropouts: 2 (3)
Cowboys in brackets

LEADING PLAYER STATS
All Runs Metres
Mark Gasnier 184
Jason Ryles 161
Ben Harris 131
Ashley Graham 127
Justin Poore 117

All Runs
Mark Gasnier 20
Jason Ryles 17
Ben Harris 17
Kirk Reynoldson 16
Carl Webb 15

Tackle Breaks
Mark Gasnier 12
Jason Nightingale 7
Beau Scott 6
Ben Harris 5
Ray Cashmere 4

Tackles
Steven Southern 36
Kirk Reynoldson 34
Jason Ryles 34
Beau Scott 34
Aaron Payne 33

1-on-1 Tackles
Luke O'Donnell 6
Johnathan Thurston 3
Aaron Payne 2
Stuart Webb 2
Justin Smith 2

Missed Tackles
Ben Creagh 7
Mark Henry 7
Luke O'Donnell 5
Rangi Chase 4
Justin Smith 4

Full Dragons v Cowboys Match & Player Stats

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