Eels slip past the Cowboys - NRL Premiership - Fox Sports

Parramatta defeat North Queensland Cowboys 24-18 in NRL at Dairy Farmers

April 23, 2010

The return of Johnathan Thurston was not enough for North Queensland Cowboys, the home side falling to a 24-18 NRL defeat to Parramatta at Dairy Farmers Stadium.

Thought to be one to two weeks away from making his NRL return from a shoulder injury, captain Thurston was a late inclusion and made an immediate impact for North Queensland, setting up a try and kicking three goals.

His organisational skills helped keep the scores locked at 12-12 at half-time.

But a Timana Tahu double was enough to lift last year's grand finalists to a tense win, leaving the battered Cowboys languishing near the bottom of the ladder with just two wins from seven starts so far in 2010.

Krisnan Inu and Ben Smith also scored tries for the Eels and Luke Burt kicked four goals.

North Queensland's try-scorers were Scott Bolton, Ashley Graham and Willie Tonga.

Carl Webb could be in doubt for the Cowboys' clash with Melbourne Storm next week after badly spraining his ankle in the first half.

James Tamou picked up a shoulder injury while Steve Rapira, Gallant and Tonga all received head knocks but were able to play on.

Cowboys coach Neil Henry said the errors in his outfit's game would need to be addressed in a hurry to stem the run of losses.

"It was a very sloppy game,'' he said.

"We needed to take a couple opportunities but I think our first half our completion was around fifty per cent.

"Unforced errors ... they happened a few times and they rolled in for a few tries.

"That standard, it's not good enough to win games in this competition.''

Relieved Parramatta coach Daniel Anderson was happy to take the win, the 2009 grand finalists' first back-to-back victory this season coming after a win over South Sydney last weekend.

"We were hanging in there but we were scratchy,'' he said.

"But we were resilient and we got the points, which is good.''