FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED FROM LAST NIGHT’S MATCH ...
Queensland’s Origin hopes took another huge blow with Josh McGuire going down with a calf injury. Maroons selectors will be sweating on the prognosis of the rampaging forward.
Welcome back to the NRL, Mr Taumalolo. In his first game back after rupturing his MCL in his knee, he picked up where he left off. The $10 million monster ran for a team high 216m, made five tackle busts and scored a try. It’s no secret his presence alone gave the Cowboys an extra boost of confidence.
Mal Meninga described it as a “seasondefining” match last night and if that really is the case, the Titans season is in serious worry. The Gold Coast have come crashing back to earth following their two-game winning streak. They put in a resilient performance but didn’t have the polish to find the win.
Last night’s match moonlighted as an early Origin audition and even had Queensland coach Kevin Walters watching on with intent as part of his Fox League commentary duties. Thirteen players were in serious Origin contention last night. Jai Arrow was clearly the standout, with 215 running metres, 23 hit ups and 35 tackles.
Both sides will need to work on their ball control after a sloppy evening in Townsville. There were 25 errors all up, with many coming from dropped highballs. Adding to the poor ball handling, both teams weren’t up to scratch in defence with the Cowboys (28) and Titans (30) missing far too many tackles to be genuine finals contenders.