Cowboys surrender to N Sharks feeding frenzy
North Queensland will start its inaugural NRLW campaign on the road, with the Cowboys to play three games in Townsville – including a double-header against the Broncos in August.
The NRLW fixture was released on Thursday, which revealed the Cowboys will play three games at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.
And one of the biggest days in North Queensland’s rugby league history will come on Saturday, August 5, when the Cowboys host the Broncos in a historic first NRLW home game.
Cowboys CEO Jeff Reibel said it was fitting the club’s first home game was played against their big-city rivals, with whom they have shared a near threedecade history in the NRL.
“This is another exciting step as we edge closer to our inaugural season in the NRLW,” Reibel said.
“Since our NRL team entered the premiership in 1995, we have forged one of the great rugby league rivalries and true Queensland derby with the Brisbane Broncos, so it is only fitting to play our first ever home NRLW game against our traditional rivals.
“Our further two games at Queensland Country Bank Stadium are terrific opportunities to showcase the women’s game, firstly with a stand-alone game against the Sharks in Round 5, followed by an all NRLW double-header in Round 7.
“On top of three home games, we have two additional games in Queensland.”
The Cowboys kick off their inaugural NRLW campaign against the Titans at the Gold Coast on July 22, followed by a clash with the Knights at Belmore Sports Ground.
The nine-round NRLW season will culminate with finals, which start on September 23.
The draw comes just days after it was announced Townsville would host Game II in the Women’s State of Origin series on Thursday, June 22. Game I will be held at Sydney’s Commbank Stadium on June 1.
Ronaldo Mulitalo scored a double, Braden Hamlin-uele ran like a Brahman Bull and Siosifa Talakai turned on the party tricks as the Cronulla Sharks ran over disappointing North Queensland Cowboys 44-6 at Pointsbet Stadium on Thursday night.
The match also featured a stellar game from in-form Nicho Hynes.
The brilliant Sharks halfback made another case to be picked somewhere – perhaps in Jarome Luai’s five-eighth jumper – in Brad Fittler’s first NSW Origin team.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, rooted to third last on the ladder, are running out of excuses.
Yes, they were missing Jason Taumalolo, but they still trotted out eight Origin players, a
Kiwi international and Drinkwater.
HYBRID HYNES
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Cronulla lead in possession, territory, penalties and momentum for its biggest-ever win over North Queensland.
And they had Hynes. If he’s not the game’s best halfback he’s playing like it. He’s playing like the game’s best five-eighth, too.
He’s like a hybrid of a six and seven – a threat on his feet, silky hands, a fizzing torpedo pass both ways, top-class kicking, game management and vision. He scored a try and made a grass-cutting tackle.
You sense the only thing keeping Luai in a blue jumper is his Panthers teammate Nathan Cleary.
The Sharks began with a hard charge by Hamlin-uele and a dominant set, watched Kyle Feldt make an error at the play-the-ball before Hynes put some footwork on an apparently stage-struck Cowboys captain Chad Townsend before popping a fine ball for the thundering Siosifa Talakai.
Powerful defence and another big charge by HamlinUele led to Briton Nikora’s grubber and Jesse Ramien’s fourth try of 2023.
The Cowboys were poor. Townsend was hammered while looking in vain for a runner and emerged, buckled from the belting, to angrily challenge Jeremiah Nanai to do better.
Hamlin-uele kept running and Hynes kept sending his outside backs at the Cowboys’ edges. Sione Katoa broke through for season tackle busts 28 (Tom Dearden) and 29 (Val Holmes) to score in the 39th minute.
The Cowboys clawed back a sliver of respectability when Dearden turned on a dummy and some speed to find Feldt, who scored after palming off Mulitalo.
At halftime the Sharks led 20-6 and it was more of the same in the second half. Hynes set free his backs – Matt Moylan, Will Kennedy, Talakai – on a beautifully executed play that found Mulitalo.
When Talakai brilliantly tapped on Hynes’ pass for Mulitalo’s second, the Sharks had become circus performers. And the Cowboys were clowns.
COWS SLAUGHTERED
Townsend went off injured while Drinkwater was put on report for an elbow on Talakai in the 50th minute.
Coen Hess was sent for 10 minutes for an apparent trip on Ramien and one assumes an assessment by the match review committee.
Nanai was put on report and sent to the bin for an apparent hip drop on Hamlin-uele.