A Scott Drinkwater try in the second period of Golden Point has sparked the North Queensland Cowboys to a 27-23 victory over an understrength Penrith Panthers to kick start Round 16.
With both sides missing several stars due to Origin commitments, it was the new faces in the sides that were keen to leave a lasting impression on their respective coaches.
Penrith had the early field position starving the Cowboys of possession in the early exchanges. An early penalty against Chad Townsend set Penrith up with the first scoring chance. Tyrone Peachey breathed a sigh of relief for blowing an overlap scoring opportunity when Jack Cogger landed an inch perfect kick. The kick was bobbled by Zac Laybutt and Izack Tago was on the spot to cross for the first try of the contest. Cogger converted for a 6-0 lead.
Off the back of a strong run from Scott Drinkwater. Tom Dearden showed and goed exposing some poor edge defence from Penrith, he was able to link up with Drinkwater to get a much needed try. Townsend's conversion left us level at 6-6. Semi Valemei was at the centre of controversy when his knee came into contact with Sunia Turuva's head and the Panthers rookie left for a HIA. Off the back of ill-discipline, a great shift from Dearden found Laybutt who got a great offload away to Kyle Feldt who found space. Feldt kicked back in-field for Dearden and the home side hit the lead by 12-6.
However, it didn't last long thanks to some poor kick defusals from Kyle Feldt. Like clockwork, Penrith were able to connect from a scrum play as Tago crossed for his second try thanks to some great ball-playing from Dylan Edwards and Jaeman Salmon.
The Cowboys strong first half was undone when Valemei lost the ball coming out of yardage, from there, their goal-line defence was paper-thin and Salmon ran right by Townsend to retake the lead and a 16-12 advantage. It was quickly added to in the shadow of half-time when Tom Jenkins crossed for his first NRL try after strong lead-up work from Salmon and Edwards for an 8 point lead at the change of ends.
After a strong start to the second half which saw Cogger land a penalty goal for a 10 point lead. Penrith made a foolish mistake and invited the home side into attacking field position and the first try for the second half. Scott Sorensen was pinned for a late shot on Townsend and it was the young rookie Kulikefu Finefeuiaki crashing over off a good short ball from Jake Granville. This reduced the margin to 4 points. More poor discipline and handling let the Cowboys level the scores when Dearden and Laybutt combined with Feldt to cross in the corner to tie it up at 22-22.
Both sides engaged in trying to kick their side home but a determined Penrith effort appeared to come back to bite. A charge down saw the ball scatter when Sorensen was ruled to have knocked on. On the ensuing set, Townsend kicked the field goal with 90 seconds remaining. However, Penrith recovered the short-dropout to secure a 23-23 result when Cogger nailed a field goal on the third try of asking.
Golden point continued the tradition of 5 tackles of go forward before they had a shot at field goal. A critical Tyrone Peachey error in the second period of golden point set the Cowboys up for a chance at glory. They were rushed on the field goal attempt which saw it land in Scott Drinkwater's arms and he was able to run around the fatigued Penrith defence stepping Edwards to secure a 27-23 verdict.