When you think of the Cowboys, you often think of Johnathan Thurston, regarded as the best halfback in the game – but rarely do you think of Matthew Bowen, and the impact that the live-wire fullback can have on a game.
In the Cowboys win last night, it was in fact Matt Bowen who made himself known, as he single-handedly kept his side in the game, in both attack and defence.
With the Cowboys moving to 4th as a result of the win, the Tigers injury toll increased – with Curtis Sironen suffering a dislocated shoulder, Masada Iosefa succumbing to a knee injury, Chris Lawrence suffering a high ankle sprain, and U20’s prop Matt Groat breaking his thumb.
“We’re still disappointed in losing the game considering some of the options we took but, given we were struggling with numbers, I guess there’s some solace.
“And the fact we attempted 200 tackles in the second half and only had 14 misses was a pretty good effort,” Sheens said.
“It’s just one of those days, some days it happens that way but the effort was great.”
For Cowboys coach Neil Henry, whilst he was pleased with the way his side defended in the second half, he knows that there is a lot of improvement for his side, given their slow start to the game.
“We conceded three tries and I thought they went through our line pretty easily and we needed to fix up our marker defence and needed a bit more discipline around the ruck and to the boys credit we did, there were no points in the second half,” Henry said.
“We controlled our possession much better and our men in the middle went forward well.”
It was clear however, that Bowen was the man the club was crediting for the win, with Cowboys co-captain and prop Matthew Scott, praising the veteran.
“He’s defied a lot of critics I think,” Scott said.
“His knees seem to be pretty much sorted and it makes such a difference to start our sets out with momentum he’s gaining.
“He’s making a lot of metres at the moment at the back and in broken play he’s such a wonderful player.”