Cowboys run riot
The Cowboys thrashed the Dragons 32–0 at St George Venues Jubilee Stadium in front of 8,491 in Round 5. They led 16–0 at half-time and never looked back. It was their 3rd straight win.
Jaxon Purdue scored 2 tries. Jake Clifford (Cowboys) was the standout with 89 fantasy points, 5 tackle breaks and 1 try. The Cowboys won the metres battle 2,176 to 1,642.
Our Final Tip had the Dragons at 52% (a coin flip) and got it wrong.
Dragons
LLLLL
Cowboys
WWLLL
Game flow
Dragons · above
Cowboys · below
Show scoring as a table
| Min | Team | Player | Event | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11' | Cowboys | Scott Drinkwater | Try | 0–4 |
| 29' | Cowboys | Jaxon Purdue | Try | 0–8 |
| 30' | Cowboys | Jake Clifford | Conversion | 0–10 |
| 38' | Cowboys | Jaxon Purdue | Try | 0–14 |
| 39' | Cowboys | Jake Clifford | Conversion | 0–16 |
| 50' | Cowboys | Braidon Burns | Try | 0–20 |
| 52' | Cowboys | Jake Clifford | Conversion | 0–22 |
| 61' | Cowboys | Murray Taulagi | Try | 0–26 |
| 77' | Cowboys | Jake Clifford | Try | 0–30 |
| 78' | Cowboys | Jake Clifford | Conversion | 0–32 |
Team stats
Better on the day
DragonsCowboys
47%
Possession
53%
86%
Completion rate
74%
1,642
Run metres
2,176
647
Post-contact metres
633
2
Line breaks
10
25
Tackle breaks
35
9
Offloads
14
659
Kick metres
600
87.3%
Effective tackle %
89.6%
35
Missed tackles
25
9
Errors
13
5
Penalties conceded
10
| SGI | NQL | |
|---|---|---|
| Six-again (ruck) | ||
| Offside inside 10m | ||
| Other | ||
| Ball Strip | ||
| Dangerous Tackle | ||
| Escorts | ||
| Grapple | ||
| Late Tackle | ||
| Lying in the Ruck | ||
| Offside General | ||
| Professional Foul | ||
| Scrum Infringement | ||
| Slow Peel | ||
| Working on the Ground | ||
| Total | 7 | 12 |
Positional battles
Combined numbers per position group · more fantasy points takes the battle
Fullbacks
NQL 57-25
Gutherson
Drinkwater
110
Run metres
176
38
Kick return metres
64
1
Tackle breaks
1
0
Line breaks
1
Halves
NQL 154-85
King-Togia, Atkinson
Clifford, Dearden
0
Try assists
3
0
Line-break assists
3
658
Kick metres
465
2
Errors
1
Hookers
NQL 50-41
Cook
Mahoney
41
Tackles
47
64
Run metres
52
88
Passes
105
1
Errors
1
Middles
SGI 137-111
Guler, Couchman, Stewart
Hess, Taumalolo, Cotter
347
Run metres
345
126
Post-contact metres
149
113
Tackles
79
6
Missed tackles
8
Back row
SGI 109-69
Leilua, Su'A
Luki, McIntyre
324
Run metres
182
5
Tackle breaks
4
64
Tackles
53
3
Missed tackles
4
Outside backs
NQL 202-107
Tuipulotu, Suli, Holmes, Fale
Burns, Purdue, Chester, Taulagi
506
Run metres
844
0
Line breaks
5
0
Tries
4
2
Errors
4
Best performers
NQL
Jake Clifford
89
NQL
Tom Dearden
65
SGI
Luciano Leilua
63
NQL
Jaxon Purdue
60
NQL
Heilum Luki
60
NQL
Scott Drinkwater
57
SGI
Toby Couchman
56
SGI
Daniel Atkinson
53
Show performers as a table
| Player | Team | Fantasy | Run m | Tackle breaks | Line breaks | Tries | Try assists | Tackles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Clifford | Cowboys | 89 | 88 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 17 |
| Tom Dearden | Cowboys | 65 | 147 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 22 |
| Luciano Leilua | Dragons | 63 | 241 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 34 |
| Jaxon Purdue | Cowboys | 60 | 219 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 14 |
| Heilum Luki | Cowboys | 60 | 132 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 47 |
| Scott Drinkwater | Cowboys | 57 | 176 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Toby Couchman | Dragons | 56 | 142 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| Daniel Atkinson | Dragons | 53 | 66 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 26 |
Head-to-head
2025 R21Cowboys home
SGI
32
38
NQL
Cowboys by 6
2024 R3Dragons home
SGI
24
46
NQL
Cowboys by 22
2023 R11Cowboys home
SGI
22
42
NQL
Cowboys by 20
2022 R20Dragons home
SGI
8
34
NQL
Cowboys by 26
2022 R14Cowboys home
SGI
12
31
NQL
Cowboys by 19
How we tipped it
Chance each model gave the Cowboys · right of 50% = tipped the winner
Generated automatically from nrl.com match data and our own models · 2026-09-25 05:16:09 UTC