Todd Payten admits he faces a welcome selection headache after Scott Drinkwater excelled in North Queensland’s 30-4 NRL demolition of Gold Coast.
Filling in at fullback for injured star Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Drinkwater had a direct hand in three of his team’s five tries, scoring one of his own, at Queensland Country Bank Stadium on Saturday.
The Cowboys’ defence was just as impressive, holding their opposition to just one try at home for third time this season as they moved to fourth on the ladder.
The pick of Drinkwater’s best moments was a piece of brilliance in the 31st minute when he went untouched from a scrum, showing and going past two defenders before dummying past David Fifita in the corner to score.
Cowboys coach Payten indicated he would need to find a place for Drinkwater somewhere when Tabuai-Fidow returns in the next week or two.
“It’s a good headache to have,” Payten said.
“Scotty was strong tonight and he had some classy involvements.”
The Cowboys (4-3) enjoyed the lion’s share of possession throughout, pinning the Titans in their own half with deep kicks and the defensive line speed they’ve adopted through seven rounds.
The loss saw the Titans fall to 2-5 after starting the season with high hopes for their talented squad.
“No one’s happy about it. We’ve got no answers at the moment,” said Titans coach Justin Holbrook.
“We’re trying stuff, it’s not working what we’re changing and we go to go back to the drawing board and have a big week.”
Holbrook experimented by moving human wrecking ball David Fifita to the centres – perhaps hoping to replicate the success of Cronulla’s Siosifa Talakai – but it fell well short of the mark as Fifita was outclassed and outgunned by Valentine Holmes.
“We had to do it for injury but also wanted to test it out there,” Holbrook said of the positional switch.
“We’ve got to try things, we’re not winning games. So we tried it but there’s limited preparation there.”
After taking a 16-4 lead into the break, the Cowboys ran in two unanswered tries in the second half with Gold Coast unable to capitalise on their numerical advantage when Jeremiah Nanai went to the bin in the 52nd minute.
Upon returning to the field, Nanai immediately latched onto a kick from halfback Chad Townsend to score untouched with the Titans goal-line defence appearing uninterested in getting a hand on the 19-year old.
Drinkwater then put a hard-running Heilum Luki through a hole in the 72nd for the final four-pointer.
In the first half, Tom Dearden, Murray Taulagi and Drinkwater all found the line for the hosts while the Titans ran one in through Jamayne Isaako.
© AAP 2022
