Cowboys stage comeback to down Dragons

An early Ben Hunt bomb yielded a Cowboy error, but Tyrell Sloan was denied the first points of the contest off the back of it with officials ruling that Jack Bird’s flick pass in the lead-up drifted forward.

Instead, it was the Cowboys picking up a penalty off the corresponding set and crossing in the left corner through Murray Taulagi.

Valentine Holmes’ conversion was waved away however as the scoreboard remained at 4-0.

A penalty put the Red V back on the attack with Zac Lomax stepping up to claim the side’s first points of the encounter off a fifth tackle sweep and a crisp draw-and-pass courtesy of Bird.

Lomax converted his own try after cleverly improving the position to put the hosts up 6-4.

A fearsome collision off the kick-off saw Cowboys back rower Kulikefu Finefeuiaki taken from the field for a HIA – which he passed – after clashing heads with Blake Lawrie.

It did not take long for the hosts to add to their advantage with skipper Ben Hunt slicing through into the backfield from inside his own half and finding a supporting Tyrell Sloan for his fourth try of 2024.

Lomax slotted the extra two to improve the Dragons lead beyond a converted try.

A damaging Mikaele Ravalawa carry and offload paved the way for Bird to earn the Red V a penalty and put them back on the attack with Kyle Flanagan dummying his way through the line for his second four-pointer as a Dragon and extend the lead further.

Raymond Faitala-Mariner went within inches of claiming the hosts’ fourth only for an in-goal fumble to prevent it.

Marschke was placed on report the following set for a high tackle on Cowboys halfback Chad Townsend with the Cowboys grabbing their second off the back of it through Sam McIntyre who crashed over under the sticks.

A successful Cowboys captain’s challenge kept them on the attack on the other side of the half-hour mark with Griffin Neame scoring off a fifth tackle grubber to eat into the Dragons edge further.

The Cowboys lost their captain’s challenge just shy of the break with video officials ruling that the Dragons forced a Reuben Cotter error in legal fashion whilst defending their try-line.

The visitors wrestled the lead back soon after through Scott Drinkwater who was the beneficiary of a Kyle Feldt bat-back to make it 22-18 heading into the sheds.

A Drinkwater 40/20 put the visitors back on the attack with Finefeuiaki crashing over to extend their advantage beyond a converted try.

Lomax came within inches of his second 53 minutes in off his trademark aerial leap only for the ball to go to ground at the final stage.

Instead, the Cowboys took the 20-metre restart and scored down the other end via five-eighth Tom Dearden.

Their next try came through Holmes who charged his way over off a Drinkwater face ball down the left edge before Chad Townsend joined him on the scoresheet moments later.

Lomax grabbed his second of the evening off a Hunt grubber entering the final 10 minutes and converted his own try to make it 46-24.

The Dragons were rewarded their first set restart of the match 75 minutes in but were unable to come up with any more points with the ball hitting the turf.