Latest news with #NRLCowboysTitans
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cowboys young gun bags first NRL hat-trick
Robert Derby has become the poster boy for Papua New Guinea with the North Queensland flyer snaring his first NRL hat-trick. The 23-year-old had a break-out performance in the Cowboys' crushing 50-18 victory over Gold Coast on Saturday night in Townsville. With all three tries coming in the second half, Derby twice combined with star playmaker Tom Dearden to score while he added his last via a penalty try in the last play of the game. Derby was pulled back by Alofiana Khan-Pereira but won the race to the ball only to knock on. The bunker ruled that he likely would have scored cleanly without interference and awarded the try. Watch all the highlights as the Cowboys take on the Titans in Round 8!#NRLCowboysTitans — NRL (@NRL) April 26, 2025 The winger also easily topped the run metres for North Queensland, with 206, the post-contact metres with 51 and the line-breaks with four. Derby was born in Port Moresby and lived in throughout the country in Mendi, Goroka and Mount Hagen before arriving in Australia as an eight-year-old. He represented the Kumuls in last year's Pacific Championships, but made his NRL debut in 2023. Derby played just one North Queensland match that year but, due to injury and veteran Kyle Feldt holding down a wing berth before his shift to St Helens, had to wait until this season for another chance. Cowboys coach Todd Payten says Derby, who has been a regular starter since round three, continues to grow in confidence. "I thought he was awesome," Payten said. "He carries the ball really strong, he's put together a good month of footy. "He was down in confidence after the trial match we had up in Cairns, he had to go back to QCup, bide his time, he worked hard on his craft." Signed with the Cowboys until the end of 2028, Derby is certain to be a major recruitment target of the PNG club when it joins the NRL that year. But Payten won't be handing him over without a fight. "He's got something that kid ... it's about him keeping his head down and keep working - he's going great."
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cagey captain helps Cowboys rope fourth straight win
Tom Dearden delivered a "captain's knock" to steer North Queensland to a thumping 50-18 victory over Gold Coast, with the Cowboys collecting their fourth successive win. On the back of a second-half blow-out, conceding 44 unanswered points, the result consigned the Titans to their fourth straight loss to continue their slide down the NRL ladder. The Saturday-night match was played at pace, with 12 tries scored and three players sin-binned. Watch all the highlights as the Cowboys take on the Titans in Round 8!#NRLCowboysTitans — NRL (@NRL) April 26, 2025 Playmaker Dearden gave Queensland State of Origin coach Billy Slater a timely reminder, finishing with four try assists and five line-break assists. Exciting young winger Robert Derby bagged his first NRL hat-trick, including a penalty try in the last play of the game, while resurgent second-rower Jeremiah Nanai collected a double among the nine-try haul. North Queensland coach Todd Payten lauded the leadership skills of his young captain Dearden, who missed training through the week due to illness. "I thought it was a real captain's knock," Payten said after the match. "What I liked was if I sent out a message after a try, whether it was us or them scoring, the feedback that I was getting was that he was already telling the players the message before the runner got out there. "So yeah, I'm glad he's ours." North Queensland opened the scoring in the seventh minute after Dearden off-loaded to halfback Jake Clifford, but they soon found themselves trailing 16-6, with Gold Coast piling on three tries in six minutes. Jojo Fifita was first across, followed by his centre partner Brian Kelly, with Beau Fermor bagging the third, although the crowd at Queensland Country Bank Stadium were outraged by a blatant forward pass to the second-rower. The home side then suffered another blow, losing Clifford to the sin bin at the 30-minute mark for a professional foul. However, the Cowboys rallied and Nanai, again set up by five-eighth Dearden, crossed for a halftime score of 12-18. With less than a minute remaining in the half, the Titans also went a man down, with Jaimin Jolliffe sent to the bin as part of the crackdown on high tackles. The second half was all North Queensland as they piled on seven tries for 38 unanswered points. Gold Coast weren't helped by another sin bin, with Brock Gray also pinged for a high shot, which Titans coach Des Hasler said "spoilt the game". "We didn't play well," Hasler said. "As soon as a tiny bit of adversity goes against us we sort of fall to pieces. "In the second half we played 20 minutes with 12 men, so it's always going to be tough, but it's something that we need to quickly address. "We were well beaten, but the sin bins make it ... I think it's inconsistent and there's nothing we can do to control that. "It spoils the game of footy." The one-way traffic took away from the good efforts of Fermor, who was a first-half standout, and promising young fullback Jaylan De Groot, who pulled off a try-saving tackle on Jaxon Purdue. Titans skipper Tino Fa'asuamaleaui also dug deep.
