North Queensland inflicted a 26-12 victory on Manly Sea Eagles to lift themselves on to eight points, level with the Sea Eagles.
After North Queensland kicked two penalties to one in the opening 20 minutes, Manly opened the try scoring. Trent Hodkinson offloaded late in the tackle to Shaun Lane. The tall forward reached out to plant the ball down.
But the Cowboys were soon back in front. Johnathan Thurston’s kick ricocheted to Jason Taumalolo. The Tongan had the easy task of waltzing into the in-goal.
North Queensland were hitting their stride. Antonio Winterstein stepped inside to ground the ball having being freed on the left.
After Thurston had a try disallowed due to a forward pass by Ta Maire Martin in the opening minutes of the second half, Brian Kelly sneaked in from dummy half in the corner for Manly.
But Manly were losing their way more as the second half went on, particularly with their kicking game.
The Cowboys were patient and eventually extended their lead through Antonio Winterstein’s second try.
Thurston then kicked across field to Kyle Feldt. Feldt caught and offloaded to Enari Tuala who scored his first NRL try to seal the win.
Sea Eagles: Wright, Taufua, Suli, Kelly, Uate, Hodkinson, Cherry-Evans, Fonua-Blake, Koroisau, Taupau, Thompson, Gosiewski, Lane; Interchanges: F Winterstein, Parker, Perrett, Sipley
Tries: Lane, Kelly; Goals: Hodkinson 2
Cowboys: Coote, Feldt, O’Neill, Tuala, A Winterstein, Martin, Thurston, Hoare, Granville, Jensen, Fensom, Lowe, Taumalolo; Interchanges: Hampton, Molo, Linnett, Dunn
Tries: Taumalolo, A Winterstein 2, Tuala; Goals: Thurston 5
Full match reports of all this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express.
