Cowboys blow away Rabbitohs in Townsville

v BYE

A dominant first half display from the Cowboys put away a spirited Rabbitohs team 20-6 in front of 13,671 fans at Townsville.

Following a week dominated by talks of cyclones, it was back to on-field action. The Cowboys provided some destruction of their own, as they raced out a 14-point lead and were never headed against a Rabbitohs team that lacked some polish. 

It was a patient performance from the home side - as South Sydney were energised in the opening fifteen minutes but the professional nature of the Cowboys wore down the visitors and scored three times across the eighty minutes to win. 

An effort from Michael Morgan that was reminiscent of his 2015 form, as the five-eighth took the ball to the line enough for defenders to question themselves, which allowed him to slice through for the score. 

Once the Cowboys got into their rhythm it was hard for the Rabbitohs to match it. Some slick passing opened up a highway of space for Gideon Gela-Mosby to stride into to stretch the lead out to 14 at the break. 

South Sydney were at their best tonight when Sam Burgess and co rolled forward. That allowed Damien Cook, to sprint from dummy-half, creating space behind the markers and created opportunities. For most of the night though, those chances didn't stick in the humid conditions. 

The one chance they did convert, came from Burgess. He got them going forward which made space for Cody Walker to put Robert Jennings into a hole to reduce the deficit back to eight points after 50 minutes. 

That would be closest the visitors got. Cowboys responded putting their star forwards back on which paid immediate dividends. Shaun Fensom who only signed with the team earlier this month, steamed onto a short ball to push it back out to 20-6. The home side controlled much of the play to run out winners and move to 4-1 on the season.

Next week the Cowboys stay in Townsville to host the struggling Wests Tigers, while the Rabbitohs are back in Sydney - sort of - when they visit Pepper Stadium to play Penrith.