The North Queensland Cowboys were impressive, especially in defence, in their victory over a fast finishing Parramatta side who were otherwise sloppy for much of this contest.
The Cowboys had a 24-4 lead with just 12 minutes remaining in the game before Clint Gutherson and Mitch Moses combined to score two tries in 5 minutes and very nearly got the Eels in a position to challenge for the victory.
The Cowboys opened the scoring in just the third minute when Peta Hiku scored a try which Valentine Holmes converted. The Cowboys extended their lead in the 10th minute when Scott Drinkwater threw a lovely ball to the unmarked Semi Valemei who raced in to score in the corner. Holmes superbly converted from the sideline.
From the restart, the Cowboys turned the ball over with a sloppy play-the-ball and within the next few plays, the Eels shifted the ball wide to Gutherson who fired a great ball to Sean Russell who scored in the corner. Moses was unavailable to convert from the sideline.
In the 25th minute the Cowboys returned to the right side and Valemei bagged his second try in the corner. Holmes failed to convert from the sideline.
Jeremiah Nanai very nearly scored 5 mins prior to halftime but he was denied due to interference. 3 minutes prior to halftime, Valentine Holmes was sin binned for an illegal tackle. The Eels went on the attack and twice very nearly scored, but Murray Taulagi denied them both times. At halftime, the Cowboys were down to 12 men, but leading 16-4.
9 minutes after play resumed, Holmes kicked a penalty goal to extend the Cowboys lead to 14 points.
The Cowboys scored in the 56th minute when Drinkwater literally strolled back inside through Parramatta's middle defence and scored under the posts in the softest try seen this year. Holmes converted from in front.
In the 69th minute Gutherson split the Cowboys left edge defence, ran 20 metres and then linked with Moses in support, who raced a further 20 metres to score under the posts. Moses quickly converted.
The 74th minute saw Gutherson again make a break before throwing a pass to Moses in support, but this time the pass bounced in front of Moses, however the Eels half toed the ball ahead and won the race for the ball, grounding it for a try. Moses again quickly converted his own try.
The Eels though were unable to get themselves across the stripe again and the game ended with the Cowboys victorious 24-16