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North Queensland Cowboys
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Match Tracker

Canberra Raiders
North Queensland Cowboys
H1
6
8

    Canberra Raiders Events

  • 22 mins - Try, E.Lee
  • 23 mins - Conversion, J.Croker

    Canberra Raiders and North Queensland Cowboys Events

  • 7 mins - Try, A.Winterstein
  • 17 mins - Penalty goal, J.Thurston
  • 40 mins - Penalty goal, J.Thurston
H2
14
13

    Canberra Raiders Events

  • 44 mins - Try, B.Austin
  • 45 mins - Conversion, J.Croker
  • 59 mins - Try, J.Wighton
  • 61 mins - Conversion, J.Croker
  • 78 mins - Penalty goal, J.Croker

    Canberra Raiders and North Queensland Cowboys Events

  • 52 mins - Try, M.Wright
  • 54 mins - Conversion, J.Thurston
  • 67 mins - Try, G.Cooper
  • 68 mins - Conversion, J.Thurston
  • 80 mins - Field goal, J.Thurston
ET
0
0

    Canberra Raiders Events

    Canberra Raiders and North Queensland Cowboys Events

Scorers

Canberra Raiders
North Queensland Cowboys
Goal Scorers Canberra Raiders North Queensland Cowboys
Tries Lee (1), Austin (1), Wighton (1) Winterstein (1), Wright (1), Cooper (1)
Conversions Croker (3/3) Thurston (2/3)
Penalty Goals Croker (1/1) Thurston (2/2)
Field Goals Thurston (1/3)

Team Statistics

Canberra Raiders
North Queensland Cowboys

Statistics

 Canberra Raiders North Queensland Cowboys
Tries 3 3
Conversions 3 2
Penalty Goals 1 2
Field Goals 0 1
Canberra RaidersGoal Scorers
Players R RM OF LB TA K T MT PC ER
B.Austin 4 45 2 0 0 3 20 5 2 0
K.Baptiste 2 20 0 0 0 0 21 1 0 0
S.Boyd 9 98 0 0 0 0 33 2 3 1
J.Croker 6 56 0 0 1 0 20 2 0 1
S.Fensom 11 108 0 0 0 0 46 2 0 1
J.Hodgson 4 28 0 0 0 1 36 4 0 0
J.Kennedy 4 44 0 0 0 0 19 1 1 0
E.Lee 13 145 0 1 1 0 4 1 1 1
F.Nuuausala 4 42 1 0 0 0 19 0 0 1
J.Papalii 10 101 0 0 0 0 40 3 1 0
J.Rapana 13 190 0 2 1 1 3 0 0 1
D.Shillington 12 135 1 0 0 0 30 1 0 0
I.Soliola 7 60 1 0 0 0 38 4 1 3
P.Vaughan 5 48 0 0 0 0 34 0 0 0
S.Waqa 11 95 0 0 0 0 16 3 0 2
J.Wighton 18 206 0 1 0 0 5 0 0 1
S.Williams 7 73 0 0 0 15 8 5 1 0
North Queensland CowboysGoal Scorers
Players R RM OF LB TA K T MT PC ER
J.Asiata 3 36 0 0 0 0 13 2 1 0
G.Cooper 15 147 0 1 0 0 26 5 0 0
L.Coote 14 109 0 0 1 6 7 4 0 0
J.Granville 8 100 0 1 1 2 34 0 0 0
B.Hannant 14 120 1 0 0 0 19 1 0 0
S.Hoare 6 71 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0
R.Kostjasyn 1 7 0 0 0 0 25 1 1 0
K.Linnett 17 167 0 0 0 0 6 3 0 0
E.Lowe 10 112 0 0 0 0 30 2 0 1
R.Lui 3 31 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0
J.O'Neill 12 117 0 0 0 0 10 1 0 0
M.Scott 14 145 1 0 0 0 15 0 1 1
J.Tamou 19 201 0 0 0 0 20 0 2 2
J.Taumalolo 18 167 0 0 0 0 20 0 1 0
J.Thurston 11 79 0 0 1 17 15 3 1 1
A.Winterstein 13 131 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0
M.Wright 10 99 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 1

Match Details

Canberra Raiders
North Queensland Cowboys
START TIME
3:00PM
WEATHER
Unknown
VENUE
GIO Stadium
Referees
Ashley Klein, Chris Sutton, Jeff Younis, Kasey Badger, Luke Phillips, Steve Chiddy
Raiders 20 Cowboys 21

Johnathan Thurston breaks desperate Canberra Raiders hearts in capital thriller

Jon Tuxworth

There's an old saying in sport  —  they don't draw diagrams in the scorebook. 

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Thurston's third drop goal attempt seals win

Jonathon Thurston seals the North Queensland Cowboys 21 - 20 win over the Canberra Raiders with the last of three drop goal attempts. All three shots were taken in the final 35 seconds of the match.

The luckless Canberra Raiders understand that all too well after a last-second field goal from North Queensland maestro Johnathan Thurston broke their hearts in a 21-20 defeat at Canberra Stadium on Saturday. 

It's not the first time the Raiders have played well and with great spirit this year before leaving empty-handed. 

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NRL: Raiders v Cowboys

The Cowboys hadn't won 10 straight games beforehand for no reason, and again they found a way to win when they fell behind late in the match. 

Raiders back-rower Sia Soliola charged down Thurston's first two field goal attempts. But as he so often does, the halfback had the last laugh. 

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Thurston backed up despite copping a hammering in Queensland's Origin II loss on Sunday and North Queensland's Origin props Matt Scott and James Tamou were both superb.

"I've been really disappointed the way I've backed up after Origin the past couple of years," Thurston said. 

"I wasn't happy with the way I backed up the last game [Origin I], too, I wanted to make sure I did my job out there today. I wanted to do my bit for the team."

He did more than that but other less-celebrated players stepped up for North Queensland. Hooker Jake Granville in particular was brilliant, including forcing a Shaun Fensom error which put his team in position to land the decisive one-pointer. 

Canberra players slumped to the ground in despair after the match. 

The Raiders made around 60 extra tackles in the first half and trailed just 8-6 at the break, their on-line defence markedly improved from previous weeks.

They led 12-8 when Blake Austin scored from a Jordan Rapana kick, but the Cowboys hit back through a try to Matthew Wright created from a Granville dummy-half burst. 

Searching for just their second home win of the year, the Raiders refused to yield and took an 18-14 lead after an hour when Edrick Lee batted a kick back to fullback Jack Wighton. 

With 13 minutes left the lead changed again when the Cowboys took advantage of a penalty, fullback Lachlan Coote hitting try-scoring back rower Gavin Cooper with a short ball close to the line.

With three minutes left Thurston was penalised for taking Rapana out attempting to catch a bomb, giving Raiders skipper Jarrod Croker a chance to level the scores with a penalty goal 10 metres in from touch. 

He made no mistake to draw things level at 20-all with two minutes to go, but Thurston had the final say. 

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was despondent afterward. Canberra is now 6-8 but has lost a bunch of close games this season, and could be in a much better position.  

Wighton was superb throughout, as was winger Jordan Rapana and revitalised prop David Shillington. 

"I thought we played very tough," he said.

"You  don't win 11 games in a row if you're not  a good team, I think we're a better football team after that game than we were before it. 

"I'm disappointed for the players because they're brokenhearted in there after the effort they put in. They won't understand that right at this moment, but we will get so much out of that."

Croker was proud of the desperation but the frustration the effort isn't translating to premiership points was evident.

"We talked about defending our errors and penalties and we did that the whole first half, pretty much," he said.

"The boys hung in,  it's extremely disappointing, the boys are a bit upset but we'll move on." 

NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 21 (Antonio Winterstein, Matthew Wright, Gavin Cooper tries; Johnathan Thurston 4 goals, field goal); bt  CANBERRA RAIDERS 20 (Blake Austin, Jack Wighton, Edrick Lee tries; Jarrod  Croker 4 goals) at Canberra Stadium on Saturday. Crowd: 10,170. Referees: Ashley Klein and Chris Sutton.