Cowboys look solid for finals

NORTH Queensland has all but booked its ticket to this year’s NRL finals after Kyle Feldt scored twice to steal a comeback 16-14 win over the Wests Tigers.

Faced with the prospect of dropping out of the top eight with defeat, the Cowboys were down 14-6 when Tigers winger Malakai Watene-Zelezniak scored with 16 minutes to go last night.

But Paul Green’s undermanned side crossed twice through Feldt in the space of four minutes to snap a worrying four-game slide.

The Cowboys’ right winger first finished off a right-side shift to reduce the deficit to four in the 66th minute, before racing to ground Michael Morgan’s long-range grubber soon after.

Morgan then sealed the win by plucking Jake Granville’s late deft kick, lifting the visitors four points clear of ninthplaced St George Illawarra with one game left form them in the regular season.

The Dragons face sixthplaced Penrith tomorrow.

It was yet another brave performance from the Cowboys, who are without five topline players including co-captains Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott.

Earlier yesterday, Canberra beat Newcastle 46-28 at GIO Stadium to keep alive its NRL season.

But the Raiders are powerless to control their destiny and need teams above them to lose if they are to play finals.

A hat-trick from Jordan Rapana set up the rout, in front of 10,523 fans, with the Raiders winger taking his season tally to 20 tries. NORTH QUEENSLAND 22 (K Feldt 2 T Martin M Morgan tries E Lowe 3 goals) d WESTS TIGERS 14 (J Aloiai M Watene-Zelezniak A Woods tries T Lolohea goal) at Campbelltown Sports Stadium. Crowd: 9346. CANBERRA 46 (J Rapana 3 B Austin J Croker J Paulo J Wighton tries J Croker 9 goals) d NEWCASTLE 28 (S Kenny-Dowall 2 M Barnett J Buhrer D Saifiti tries T Hodkinson 4 goals) at GIO Stadium. Crowd: 10,523.