Hess Express powers the Cowboys to victory

v BYE

If Jason Taumalolo is worth a million a season, then Cowboys wrecking ball Coen Hess may be asking for a pay rise after the young Cowboy put his name up in lights for the North Queensland Cowboys in an unstoppable performance to snatch a valuable 32-26 win over the Titans at CBUS Stadium tonight.

The Titans defence may have thought they were in for an easier night with the Cowboys regular steam train Jason Taumalolo missing. However the Gold Coast will be having nightmares with Hess bulldozing his way through the Titans defensive line to score a decisive double for the Cowboys to clinch a win, as they bounced back from their thrashing at the hands of the Sea Eagles last week.

The Cowboys got off to a dream start when skipper Jonathan Thurston opened the scoring, pouncing on a Jake Granville grubber close to the line to have the visitors fly out of the blocks to lead 6-0 after just 4 minutes.

The visitors continued to dominate possession and back to back penalties close to the line saw Thurston extend the lead to 8 points within the first 10 minutes.

Titans skipper Ryan James then found himself in hot water, when he was penalised for a shoulder charge, which is sure to come under scrutiny from the Match Review Committee and Thurston extended to lead to 10 points and were completely dominating possession with the Titans not getting into their own attacking zone until the 22^nd minute.

When the home side got there though, they made it count when interchange player Leivaha Pulu produced a superb offload for centre Dale Copley to score on his Titans debut, Taylor narrowed the margin with the conversion and it was 10-6 despite the Gold Coast having just 39% possession and facing a 6-2 penalty count in the Cowboys favour.

The Titans then struck again minutes later, when that man Pulu again got a sensational offload close to the line to find surprise fullback replacement Tyrone Roberts who dived over to score next to the posts.  Taylor added the extras and despite the penalty count and mountain of possession going against them, the home side hit the front.

Rookie winger Gideon Gela-Mosby then got a ball from Young gun Kalyn Ponga in the corner and showed his much hyped try scoring ability, when he stopped, pivoted and ducked under two defenders to dive over and score. Thurston missed with the conversion and the Cowboys regained the lead 14-12.

The Cowboys threatened the line several times towards the backend with Thurston and Ponga threatening, and it was that combination that struck on the break, when Thurston went to the line and found Ponga charging through the middle and he scored to extend the Cowboys lead to 20-12 at halftime in an extraordinary first stanza.

Both sides came out strong in the second half and the game took another turn, when the Gold Coast reclaimed the momentum in the 54th minute, when Titans five-eighth Kane Elgey threw a superb cut out ball to find rookie, Tyrone Roberts-Davis unmarked, who motored his way over in the corner to cut the Cowboys lead to four points.

Second rower Hess then scored the first of his two tries after a superb set of six from the Cowboys saw them charge up the field to allow Hess to show his strength to again extend their lead to ten points after the Thurston conversion. His steamrolling efforts didn't finish there when off the back of a strong run from front rower Scott Bolton, saw Hess score a decisive second try, carrying four Titans defenders over the line. The Hess double sealed the match for the Cowboys and from there they were never threatened despite two late Titans tries to Titans debutants Copley, who grabbed his second and Daniel Vidot who cleaned up a dropped ball from opposite Kyle Fedlt on the siren.

Coach Paul Green will be delighted with the performance of skipper Jonathan Thurston, who was back to his best after a quiet game against Manly the week before. The Australian halfback scored a try and had a hand in two more in another superb display from the future Immortal.

Gold Coast to their credit never gave up and despite the loss, they certainly put in a courageous performance in defeat. The Titans now travel to Auckland where they face the Warriors next Sunday in what promises to be a tough road trip.

North Queensland will return to Townsville with a valuable away win and now await the South Sydney Rabbitohs next Friday night.