2006 Round 6 vs North Queensland Cowboys:
North Queensland 18 defeated Newcastle 16.
North Queensland and Newcastle played out the best game of football so far in season 2006, with the result coming down to the final 5 minutes. The game was all the pre-match hype had built it up to be, with an excellent standard of football and close finish illustrating that these two sides will be in the running for this years premiership come September.
In the end Matthew Bowen came up with the decisive play to take the Cowboys to the lead in the 75th minute. With the Knights defence tiring, but still extremely willing, he took the ball to the line on the 5th tackle, chipped from 25 metres out, regathered on the full before stepping Milton Thaiday to score the try. It was the breath taking ending the game deserved, but not the one the 26,000 strong crowd had been hoping for.
Earlier Newcastle withstood some severe North Queensland pressure to eke out a seemingly match-winning lead. After the first 10 minutes was all the Cowboys, Newcastle took advantage of their first significant field position to register the first try. Johns spread the ball wide from centre field with a cut-out pass to Kurt Gidley, who found his brother Matt who touched down out wide. Johns missed the sideline conversion which left the score 4-0.
A rugby league rarity took place in the 28th minute, with Paul Simpkins injuring a calf muscle and being unable to continue. Tony De Las Heras, who had no previous first grade experience, was called onto the field as replacement.
North Queensland looked to have struck a decisive blow in the 35th minute, when a Steve Southern break led to a Mitchell Sargent try under the Knights posts, but Newcastle replied almost immediately to take a 10-6 lead into halftime. In the Cowboys 10-metre zone, Andrew Johns threw a short ball to Matthew Gidley, who then threw an over-head pass while going to ground, that found George Carmont on the chest and in plenty of space.
After the break the Knights found themselves immediately on the attack thanks to a misdirected pass. Danny Buderus ran across field, then into a gap to cross from dummy-half. The conversion by Johns made it 16-6, and with tries immediately before and after halftime it looked like the Knights were on a roll.
North Queensland clawed their way back into the match, however, with a combination of solid defence, which forced the Knights into errors, and a driving kicking game that gradually wore Newcastle down. The benefits were yielded in the 62nd minute when Johnathan Thurston scored. Defending grimly on their own line, the Knights were stretched, and when Buderus sprinted up to try and cut down the brilliant North Queensland halfback, he provided the gap that allowed Thurston to coast over. The resulting conversion narrowed the gap to 4 points.
The 4-point deficit remained until Bowen's magical play wrested the lead to the Cowboys.
Newcastle did have their chance to hit the lead again, with firstly a set inside North Queensland's 20 straight after the kick-off, and finally an intercept by Clint Newton almost on fulltime, but could not register points from either opportunity.
Both sides would have been pleased by their performance in the 3-tries all match. The Knights paid for the amount of defence they had to do, and suffered thanks to an injury to chief-playmaker Andrew Johns (which was expected to sideline him for 1-2 weeks). In the second half their ball control fell away as tiredness set in, allowing North Queensland to mount sustained pressure. The crowd laid blame for the loss at the feet of the referee De Las Heras, who appeared to favour the Cowboys with several line-ball decisions.
North Queensland showed tremendous patience with the ball in the second-half, and eventually cracked the Knights defence. They left the ground deserved premiership favourites, but knowing they would be well-tested by the Knights should the two teams meet again in September or October.
What they said:
Andrew Johns:
"[On his ankle injury] I don't know what happened and I don't know how bad it is. Tomorrow will be an indicator, but it's not too flash. I'm shattered."
Craig Smith:
"They got us through sheer perseverance. They probably taught us a bit of a lesson in the way they completed their sets and applied pressure. Good sides keep putting you under pressure and you can only defend for so long."
"They test you a lot up the middle. We knew they were going to go there today and they did. It was a tough, physical game that got away from us probably from our mistakes."
Danny Buderus:
"You can't invite them down there too many times from penalties and incompletions. They have too many gamebreakers to keep defending your line, but credit to the boys because they did that for a lot of the game."
Clint Newton:
"[On his last-minute intercept] As soon as I caught the ball, I didn't have any vision of running 80 metres. I just pinned my ears back and decided to go as far as I could, and I didn't even know he was behind me. Maybe I am a bit of loose ball carrier, but he caught me a bit by surprise."
Michael Hagan:
"I think it's just a good indication of where we stand, which is probably not too far behind them. There isn't much between the top teams."
"[On the replacement referee] He was probably having a latte when the other bloke got injured. I don't think he was prepared or expecting that, to be honest. He might have thought he was in Townsville, perhaps."
"[On Johns' ankle inury] His ankle is a bit sore. It blew up a little bit. He was probably harnessed by that a fair bit, in the second half."
Matthew Bowen:
"[On running down Newton in the last minute] All the boys said at the end of the game: 'Lucky it was Clint Newton'. He had a bit of speed, but lucky it wasn't the other pretty boys or it would make it a tough chase for us."
Graham Murray:
"In the end, it was pretty special in the way Matt Bowen played it out. There's only a few blokes who can do that at that point in time and he's one of them. I needed someone like that to break it open. It was going to be Johnathan Thurston or Matt Bowen for us. For them, it was going to be Andrew Johns or Danny Buderus."
"I wished he'd done it in the first half … we talked about doing those things. He just had a good opportunity, he put a good weight on it, it was the right height and then - try. He's exceptionally gifted when he's got the football because the opposition is not sure of what he's going to do with it."
"[On the replacement referee] I think he did a pretty good job in the end that bloke. They were pretty tough circumstances."
"You don't get too excited about it. We have won a really tough game in Newcastle and we will celebrate, but we're not going to get ahead of ourselves."