Very rarely do you see a side held to nil in an NRL game, but that is what happened – as the North Queensland Cowboys defeated the Brisbane Broncos 12-0 at Dairy Farmers Stadium – just the third home victory over the Broncos for the Cowboys, in their history.
With scores locked at nil all until the 60th minute, it was the Cowboys who scored the points, as the Broncos were held scoreless for the first time since Rd 21 2009, when they lost 56-0 to the Canberra Raiders.
It was a solid performance from the two Cowboys veterans, with Johnathan Thurston and Matthew Bowen running the show – with both involved in the only two tries of the game.
Despite the win however, the Cowboys will face a nervous wait on prop Ashton Sims, who was put on report for a high tackle on Broncos prop, Ben Hannant.
“It’s right up the top, I can’t remember a time where we’ve hung in like that before,” Scott said.
“We’ve had a couple of calls go against us, a couple of repeat sets and in the past we’ve probably dropped our head a bit and let that affect us.
“But all credit to the boys, we hung in there against a good attacking side.”
Co-captain and QLD prop Matthew Scott, praised his halfback for backing up from Origin, in what was a grueling game defensively.
“I thought JT (Thurston) was sensational. For him to get through the amount of work he does two days after an Origin was something special and we needed it tonight,” Scott said.
“It’s probably the quickest NRL game I’ve played in and we needed all the 17 to contribute.”
For Broncos coach Anthony Griffin, whilst he praised his side’s overall performance, he was disappointed at their missed opportunities, and lamented their failed chances.
“You could tell at halftime it wasn’t going to take many points to win the game with the way both teams were defending,” Griffin said.
“We just didn’t get any ball or any field position in the second half and when we did we missed a couple of chances.”