Cowboys too good for sloppy Titans

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North Queensland Cowboys v Gold Coast Titans

North Queensland has won its second game in three weeks, downing a poor Titans side who were their own worst enemies all night to the tune of 28-14 at 1300SMILES Stadium.

In the tenth minute of the game, the scoring started when Jake Granville scooped the ball up from dummy half and darted left, threw a little dummy and then went over for a soft try. Jordan Kahu converted.

The Titans looked to have hit back twp minutes later when Anthony Don grubbered back infield and Ash Taylor juggled the ball, but Granville also got a hand on it, resulting in a knock-on against the Titans, denying them a try.

They wouldn't be denied three minutes after that, shifting the ball left before Tyrone Roberts got a nice offload away to AJ Brimson, who dived over to score in the corner. Roberts failed to convert.

In the 22nd minute Granville ran to the right from dummy-half and then dumped the ball back inside to Jason Taumalolo who was running a great line and he smashed his way through the gap to score a good try. Kahu converted.

The Titans had another try disallowed by the bunker after Brimson fielded a kick near his own goal line, beat two chasers, set down the left wing, made a great offload in a heavy tackle to Tyrone Peachey who then ran 50 metres to score, only for it to be called back after Phillip Sami had interfered with Granville who was chasing Peachey, denying him the chance to make a tackle.

Kahu kicked two penalty goals in the final 10 minutes before the break to close out the half.

The Titans struck first, just 3 minutes into the second half when Kevin Proctor got through a gap between two defenders and crashed over the line for a try. Taylor converted.

On the hour mark, the Titans moved the ball right where Brimson attracted the two edge defenders before getting a nice ball to the unmarked Don, who runs around to score untouched. Taylor failed to convert from out wide.

8 minutes later, the Cowboys extended their lead with a great piece of work by John Asiata, who grubbered to the left wing, Ben Hampton then regathered a tough bounce and then passed back in-field to Asiata who ran 20 metres to score. Kahu added the extras.

Right on the stroke of fulltime, Justin O'Neill put the icing on the cake when he broke through some tired middle defence and ran 30 metres to score a good solo try. Kahu converted to give the Cowboys a convincing victory.