Cowboys round up Sharks
April 10, 2004
Cronulla 10 NQ Cowboys 36
NORTH QUEENSLAND continued Cronulla's early-season woes with a thumping of the Sharks in tonight's NRL match at Toyota Park.
A week after their embarrassing capitulation to South Sydney and still reeling from the 10-match suspension dished out to five-eighth Greg Bird for kneeing an opponent in the head, the hapless Sharks remained rooted to equal last place on the competition table following their first loss to the Cowboys since 1996.
The six-tries-to-two drubbing was Cronulla's first-ever home loss to the Cowboys and only their second defeat from 15 meetings with the lowly-rated Queenslanders.
Classy centre Nigel Vagana had been hailed during the week as Cronulla's saviour. Instead, the Sharks' prize recruit found himself on report for a high tackle on North Queensland opposite Matt Sing during a quiet debut for the club in his comeback from off-season shoulder surgery.
Cronulla's night started terribly when prop Chris Beattie was laid out in a tackle gone wrong on North Queensland counterpart Paul Rauhihi in the second minute.
Beattie's sore and sorry departure left the Sharks without their two frontline props after Jason Stevens was also suspended during the week for tripping in the ill-disciplined performance against Souths.
It took just eight minutes into the game for North Queensland to post their first try, through lock Glenn Morrison, which centre Josh Hannay converted for a 6-0 lead.
The signs weren't good for the Sharks when they allowed interchange utility David Myles to run around and improve the position for Hannay when he scored in the 11th minute.
Hannay duly converted and added a penalty five minutes later to surge ahead 14-0.
Cronulla's desperately-needed first points came in the 20th minute via a try to winger Reece Simmons, who outleapt Cowboys opposite Ty Bowen to reel in a Brett Kimmorley crossfield bomb.
But the Sharks undone their brief good work when they conceded a soft try under the sticks to fullback Matt Bowen four minutes later.
Trailing 20-4 at the break, Cronulla desperately needed quick points upon the resumption and they came through a try to five-eighth Matt Hilder off a Michael Sullivan short kick in the 43rd minute.
Brett Kimmorley's successful conversion reduced the deficit to 10 points, but the Cowboys struck back in the 52nd minute with a try to hooker Aaron Payne after a great offload from Rauhihi.
Centre Josh Hannay added the extras to make it 26-10 and Cronulla were looking down the barrel.
Further tries to Hannay, giving him a 16-point haul for the evening, and Bowen completed the rout.
NORTH QUEENSLAND 36 (M Bowen 2 G Morrison D Myles A Payne J Hannay tries J Hannay 6 goals) bt CRONULLA 10 (R Simmons M Hilder tries B Kimmorley goal). Referee: T Mander. Crowd: 9242.
AAP
And my word we round them up well. Very happy with the vicotry, they played awesome out there tonight.
