Cowboys 30 Warriors 10
Stagnant, scrappy and scintillating were all adjectives which could be used to describe the Warriors' 30-10 loss to North Queensland.
It means the Warriors' winning drought at Townsville extends beyond nine years.
The Warriors are now teetering to stay in the top eight for the weekend on 16 points but it completes a worrying third straight loss with one week to go before their second bye.
The Cowboys season strengthens as they moved to 22 points and consolidated their place in the top five teams, outscoring the Warriors seven tries to two.
The Warriors showed glimpses of what will one day be a rosy future. But that comes with some of last night's other teething problems like conceding three tries in eight minutes midway through the second half. It mirrored their problems losing to the Tigers 26-22 last week.
The game-breaking of Shaun Johnson, tackling of new lock Elijah Taylor and elusiveness of wing Glen Fisiiahi were in evidence but the team's relative inexperience in the absence of experienced pros like Micheal Luck, Sam Rapira and Brett Seymour made it a tough assignment, especially on defence.
Seven of the 17 Warriors who took the field for the New Zealand-based franchise are graduates of the Toyota Cup since its inception in 2008.
That is a nod to the efforts of club development but it means fans might leave exasperated for some time yet as the team failed to maintain its composure when lethargy set in.
The Warriors took half an hour to find a fuse to their dynamite attack. When they did it made for a decent explosion that gave them momentum 10 minutes either side of the break.
After that, the game was often reduced to a scramble where the Warriors came off second-best, missing a stack of tackles and allowing the Cowboys to penetrate where the Tigers did last week.
The Cowboys disrupted the Warriors defence with timely offloads, rugged tackle breaks and plenty of guile around the ruck.
Kalifa Faifai Loa scored after play swept across the field, from a Matthew Scott offload out the back of the tackle which made space for Dallas Johnson and Johnathan Thurston who found his man on the left flank.
Likewise Aaron Payne seized on a Manu Vatuvei error when he came off the left edge on the Warriors' line and a Payne cut out pass gave Ashley Graham an open line five metres out.
It was not the only pain Vatuvei felt from Graham during the match. Late in the first half, he received a kick into what could discreetly described as the middle of the pelvic region.
In fact the end of that half produced a range of emotions; another being the unusual sight of a beaming Ivan Cleary as halfback protege Shaun Johnson leapt free of the Cowboys' defensive line from 60m and scored a try; managing to stay free from the desperate clutches of speedy opposition fullback Matt Bowen.
Feleti Mateo also came into his own from the second row, living up to his ball-playing prowess.
He slipped a tackle in the 23rd minute and fed James Maloney who scored under the posts, giving the Warriors a handy edge which gave them some rare momentum.
Cowboys 30 (K. Faifai Loa 2, A. Graham, J. Thurston, T. Sims, J. Segeyaro, B.Jones tries, G. Cooper gl), Warriors 10 (J. Maloney, S. Johnson tries, Maloney gl) Halftime: Warriors 10-8.
* The Knights put a recent poor run of form behind them to win an entertaining but scrappy encounter against a disappointing Panthers outfit last night.
Newcastle, who had lost four of their previous five games, opened the scoring in the 16th minute with a try from Neville Costigan. The hosts dominated the first quarter and led 8-0 at the break.
The Panthers opened their account in the 45th minute, with burly second rower Masada Iosefa hauling in a slide rule pass from Luke Walsh close to the line.
Akuila Uate restored the eight-point advantage just past the hour mark, after receiving a nice flick pass from his centre and steamrolling over the top of Penrith No1 Lachlan Coote.
Knights 16 (N. Costigan, A. Uate tries; K. Gidley 4 gls), Panthers 12 (M. Iosefa 2 tries; L. Walsh 2 gls). Halftime: 8-0.
