One gets the feeling the NQ Cowboys may have been unimpressed with their error riddled performance against the Eels last week after they decided to use the Roosters as a punching bag during their 40-0 gutting of the visitors in Townsville on Thursday night.
Despite going to sleep for a couple of stretches in both halves, it was easily the Cowboys best performance so far in the young NRL season.
The northerners started the match on fire, crossing for a pair of almost identical tries courtesy of Kane Linnett and Antonio Winterstein before the clock had even hit double digits.
The Roosters back was pretty much snapped when Lachlan Coote (who was sensational all night) crossed right before the first half siren to make it 18-0.
It didn’t take long for the home side to get going again after the break with Scott Bolton bullocking over some soft Roosters defence in the 48th minute to put the Cowboys up 24-0 after Johnathan Thurston’s fourth straight conversion.
The onslaught continued with the defending premiers putting in three more tries before the match was done with the highlight coming courtesy of an exquisite Michael Morgan pass that cut out four teammates to find Kyle Feldt in the corner for an easy four-pointer.
Some individual Feldt brilliance created the highlight play of the match overall earlier on though while the game was still in the balance, when he managed to retrieve a Roosters grubber from deep in the in-goal and somehow managed to get past several surging Sydney players to get the ball back into the field of play.
The Cowboys win was in sharp contrast to the Round 2 loss as they completed 80 per cent of their sets, outgained the Roosters by over 650 metres and dominated the time of possession.
The visitors appeared to be infected by the repetitive drop syndrome that the Cowboys endured last week in coughing up 12 errors and completing just 62pc of their sets.
James Tamou was a beast on the night running for a game high 224 metres while also accounting for 29 tackles, and Jason Taumalolo was equally impressive in gaining 166 metres and showcased his apparent superhuman strength late in the game when he bulldozed his way through for a superb individual try.
Skipper Thurston had a great night off the boot nailing six of his seven conversion attempts, and consistently put the Roosters under pressure with an array of accurate and well timed grubbers and bombs.
I can’t imagine that the Cowboys Round 4 grand final rematch against the Broncos next Friday at Suncorp Stadium is going to be such a walk in the park, but it’s sure to be a cracker no matter who prevails.
