Round 5
Cowboys 32 d. Tigers 12

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Marshall to see Doctor today
Mon April 10, 2006
Source: www.weststigers.com.au

Wests Tigers paid a heavy price for the loss to the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville on Friday night with star five-eighth Benji Marshall suffering a right shoulder injury.

The injury happened in the final minute when Carl Webb ran straight at Marshall. He will meet with the club doctor on Monday to find out the extent of the injury and how long he will be sidelined.

The Cowboys won 32-12 in the grand final rematch at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Friday night in humid conditions.

Marshall now joins the club's casualty ward alongside Dene Halatau (shoulder), Liam Fulton (shoulder), Robbie Farah (broken hand) and Shannon McDonnell (broken hand).

It was the same right shoulder that 21-year-old Marshall injured last season, requiring off-season surgery.

Wests Tigers also went into the game without workhorse second-rower Anthony Laffranchi, who was serving game one of a two week
suspension.

Both sides started strongly with Wests Tigers captain Brett Hodgson opening the scoring with a penalty goal for a 2-0 lead after hooker Stuart Flanagan was hit high.

Wests Tigers defence held strongly to deny the Cowboys a try during three sets of six. The Cowboys levelled with a penalty goal after five-eighth Benji Marshall was placed on report for a high tackle on Justin Smith.

The Cowboys took an 8-2 lead after 27 minutes when Rod Jensen scooted out from dummy half to catch some tired defence napping to score a converted try.

Cowboys five-eighth Jonathan Thurston then took off from dummy half to put a grubber kick through two players to dive on the ball to score for a 14-2 lead.

A rare sin-binning of centre Paul Whatuira for taking out a player without the ball left the Wests Tigers to 12 men. Thurston kicked a penalty goal to extend the lead to 16-2.

A minute before half-time, winger Matt Sing took a crossfield bomb from Thurston to score. Thurston converted for a 22-2 lead at half-time.

Wests Tigers hit back six minutes after the break when Prince gave the ball wide to Marshall to step inside Josh Hannay to score out wide. Hodgson missed the conversion to trail 22-6.

Repetitive sets of six on the Cowboys line finally paid off when hooker Isaac De Gois surged his way over from dummy half to score his first try in first grade. Hodgson converted from next to the posts to leave the Wests Tigers trailing 22-12 with 20 minutes remaining.

The Cowboys wrapped up the game in the 69th minute with a simple try to Gavin Cooper after having numbers out wide. Thurston missed the conversion to leave his side leading 26-12.

A break by Thurston up the middle one minute later found Southern in support who offloaded to Jensen to score his second try. Thurston converted the try for a 32-12 lead.

It was then that Marshall suffered the shoulder injury. The rest of the Wests Tigers players came through the game okay.

Meanwhile Hodgson is now just seven points away from breaking Joel Caine's record of 526 points for the club. Hodgson is on 520 points.

Wests Tigers will now prepare for their next game against Cronulla Sharks at Campbelltown Stadium on Easter Sunday, April 16.

News sent by: www.weststigers.com.au


Benji's Blues as Cowboys beat Premiers
Fri April 7, 2006
The curse of the defending premiers has struck again with pivotal Kiwi whizkid Benji Marshall suffering another injury setback to his troublesome shoulder, And to make matters worse, it occurred in the 78th minute of the Grand Final rematch of which the Cowboys were firmly in control of at 32-12. This ended up the final score in what can only be described as a comprehensive victory to last years' Runners Up.

A dejected Marshall left the field after making a tackle on rampaging Cowboys forward Carl Webb late in the second half. At the point of impact, Benji's shoulder was dislocated and then popped back in as he attempted a second tackle. The Channel 9 coverage showed him in much distress as he left the field for the dressing sheds, and then later in the dressing sheds with the medical staff as time ran down towards zero.

The early prognosis is that Marshall, the key to the Tigers chances in 2006, will miss 6-8 weeks of football. He will also miss the ANZAC test in a blow to the Kiwi's who are looking forward to capitalising on their 2005 Tri-Nations trimuph over the Kangaroos.

Two of New Zealand's, and indeed Rugby League's brightest stars in Benji and Bulldogs forward Sonny Bill Williams seem to be spending more time injured than they are playing. The rigours of NRL football on the two prodigious talents at such a tender age appears to be taking their toll and maybe the NRL and the RLPA need to look at regulating the age at which our future stars can start to play NRL football full-time. With the advances in Sports Medicine and on top of the adoption of more effective training and conditioning at earlier ages in developing talent, we appear to be seeing some sort of generational shift that sees our younger players having the skill, fitness and committment levels to match it with seasoned veterans. But they still lack the structural hardness required to stand up to this level of football. In time, this shift will probably filter through all of the up and coming talent and it is unlikely we'll see the likes of Benji Marshall and Sonny Bill Williams being such standouts at such a young age again.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys are going from strength to strength in their quest to go one better in 2006, notching up 5 wins from 5 starts to lead all sides in the 2006 Telstra Premiership. Dally M winner Johnathon Thurston was again the standout in a polished performance for the Cowboys.

The first half was played at a breath taking speed between two talented sides with nothing giving. The Wests Tigers were the first side to crack when Rod Jensen scored a soft try crashing over. North Queensland followed that up with two outstanding tries with Thurston grubber and chasing for himself and than Thurston putting in a perfect cross-field kick for a flying Matt Sing to score his 153rd career try and move him into outright 5th position.

Wests Tigers on the back of Marshall got back into the game with Marshall scoring the first and than Marshall setup talented young hooker Isaac De Gois to make the margin 22-12.

Late tries to Jensen and young prop Matthew Scott sealed a 32-12 victory for the Cowboys.

Unfortunately the performances by the Cowboys will be over-shadowed by the career threatening injury to Marshall and the Wests Tigers premiership defence has been completely thrown into chaos.

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