2015 NYC Holden Cup

FULLTIME - NYC HOLDEN CUP

North Queensland Cowboys - 42 (Tries: Scott Schulte 2, Cohen Hess 2, Conor Carey, Braden Uele, Brandon Smith, Ty Carucci, Ross Bella; Goals: Hess 2/4, Bambling 1/4)

Newcastle Knights - 22 (Tries: Daniel Safiti, Brock Lamb, Josh King, Luke Yates Goals: Donovan 1/2 Lamb 2/2)
 
There better have been a good excuse to give up that lead. Shocking but it should make us stronger.
 
There better have been a good excuse to give up that lead. Shocking but it should make us stronger.
Donovan went off injured, so we might have been short on troops, and maybe we didn't have anyone to do a decent job at fullback either.
 
It sounds like our halves and forwards killed it so not really. Who's to say though. With Birch out, Donovan injured early and some inexperienced backs, looks like our backline was our downfall in the end.
 
So Harry and Pride weren't missed?

i think you are spot on with that comment, there is no doubt our forwards have some attack in them but I am seriously doubting our ability to defend. Pride and pondekas were 2 of our best last year with wrapping the ball up and rolling over the opposition attack.
From what I'm hearing about the game the cows cut bradie smith and his outside man to shreds, and bambling caused plenty of havoc in and around the middle too.
apparently pondekas has been a standout in the dogs 2 games so far, they don't seem to have a good side but i checked the stats before and he had 49 tackles with only 2 missed, 4 offloads 2 try assists and a dozen carries. I would like to see pride and pondekas link up again and dominate like last year.
 
Harry and Pride are good players but what can we do? They're imports in the first place, they left at no fault of the Knights, no point carrying on about them. Our forwards yesterday scored 3 of the 4 tries and blew the big Warriors forwards away the week before, from what I've seen they play great as a unit and came close to being 2-0 if it weren't for being chased down late in the second half which happens to good teams even if first grade regularly. There's alot of players who are inexperienced in this new look side of ours but our starting forwards and halves are most definitely our strength at the moment. We'll keep getting better, I'm happy with where we're at so far. We are still 6th. Even if we had won we'd only be sitting one spot above where we're at now.
 
Won't be the only side to get touched up by this years Cowboys U20's. The Roosters saw that first hand in week one with a 53-14 loss.

I'd say the Cowboys forward pack is the best in the comp or very close to it. With Uele and Kikau the starting props there won't be any side bigger or better then them 2 at starting prop. Throw in Hess in the backrow and its basis of a monster starting pack. With Bambling finally having forwards laying the platform he will set up many tries this year. The kid can play.

Most the Cowboys backs are fairly average imo with the exception to speed machine Gela.

Wouldn't be to hard on the Knights kids they weren't the first side this year and won't be the last to get touched up by this Cowboys 20's side this year.
 
The Cowboys did well to come back in the second half. We'll keep getting better the more experience our new players get
 
Big re jig of the back line.
Donovan out injured will be missed. Replacing him with a new guy is unusual if Tofilau is any good at fullback.
Bradie Smith will give us a lot of size in the centres.
We scored all our tries in the forwards or halves last week.
Interesting to see if the new backline does better, but with Birch and donovan injured we are running short of experienced troops.
 
Just saw Harry Pondekas named in the Doggies NYC team. Getting regular time down there. Doing alright apparently. Change of environment can often do wonders for some players.
 
Our backs are pretty small with no Birch so glad to see Smith in there just to add some balance. Titans have been the surprise packet in the first 2 rounds so it's going to be tough to win but once again we'll be relying on our halves and starting forwards to get us over the line.
 
The Cowboys did well to come back in the second half. We'll keep getting better the more experience our new players get

Not as if it was a big comeback. Hell the Roosters got it to 14 all before being blown off the park in round 1.

They did it again to the Knights in round 2 all while being down a forward for majority of the game.
 
They were behind by 14 until the last quarter or so and before that were 18 down just before half time. They scored 4 tries in the last 20 minutes so the Knights clearly shut down after half time. Like I said, well done to them for coming back and winning. Our inexperienced players will learn from it.
 
Everyone knows that ain't a big come back in 20's. Not as if they were fully experienced players either for 20's lol
 
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