Cowboys Hard Done By

In very wet conditions in Auckland, the Warriors have come away with the two competition points against the North Queensland Cowboys.

The Cowboys showed a lot of skill and kept the score to nil all after the first 20 minutes. They were the first to score through Matt Sing, but the Warriors hit back with three quick tries to take the score to 16-6. But the Cowboys didn't give up and Sing scored his second of the day just before half time. Which took the score to 16-12 at the break.

The Warriors came out firing in the second half, but the wonderful Cowboys defense held them out as long as they could. Stacy Jones went very close to scoring only to be held up by McDonald. A couple of plays later Jones went through again and claimed the try, this time the referee didn't go upstairs and awarded the try, but when the replay was viewed it was clear the Jones was stopped centimeters from the line. By this stage the Cowboys were lacking confidence and the Warriors were red hot.

With 10 minutes to go and the score 30-18 to the Warriors, Cowboys centre Josh Hannay scored a 60m try after John Carlaw knocked on. Hannay converted his own try and the Cowboys were only within six points of the Warriors.

With less than two minutes on the clock, the North Queensland were only 10 metres out from the oppositions line when the ball was lost by a Cowboys player. The referee put down the scrum and it was over for the visitors. But as the scrum was forming the people at home got to see the replay - as I watched I saw with my own eyes that the ball was definitely raked out in the tackle.

Even though it was a very entertaining match, I feel watching the game that the Cowboys were very hard done by. They should hold their heads up high as they did a magnificent job against a true premiership contender