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Payne Haas was denied what would have been a great try and scored what was an even better one anyway as Brisbane’s star prop powered his team to a 26-16 victory over an improved Cowboys on Friday night.
Haas provided the brawn and captain Adam Reynolds brought the brains as the Broncos bounced back from their surprise loss to Canberra in handing North Queensland a hat-trick of losses to start their campaign.
The towering prop tallied a game-high 205 running metres from 22 hit-ups to go with his two line breaks and one assist.
Front-rowers aren’t usually considered Dally M Medal candidates but Haas could walk away with the game’s top individual honour in 2025 based on his dominant early-season returns.
Earlier in the night, the Warriors rallied to score two late tries in running down the Roosters 14-6 at Go Media Stadium.
Roosters hooker Connor Watson copped a concussion and Warriors star Roger Tuivasa-Sheck suffered a hamstring injury as the hosts made it back-to-back wins after they were vanquished in Vegas by the Raiders.
The first half was a game of two halves, or the first two quarters of the match in totality. Anyway, the Cowboys dominated the opening 20 minutes but could not convert their mountain of possession and field position into points.
A Reece Walsh 40/20 kick hauled the Broncos up the money end and they cashed in when Adam Reynolds grubbered for Jack Goswieski.
Reynolds nearly repeated the dose for Selwyn Cobbo but the goalpost intervened so the veteran halfback ran the ball to rack up the home team’s next points.
He created a break for Gehamat Shibasaki in his own half when John Bateman made a feeble tackle attempt and the same Cowboys forward was again clutching at thin air as Reynolds ran past him on his own line on the next play.
Desperate to avoid a third straight loss, the Cowboys fired up after the break to put first points on when Griffin Neame bagged a rare try when Brisbane failed to defuse a bomb.
And they equalised at 12 apiece midway through the second stanza when Murray Taulagi planted the Steeden in the corner just minutes after fumbling an attempt to do so off a grubber.
Payne Haas pushes away Scott Drinkwater. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Reynolds and Walsh combined to provide a saloon passage to the line for Jesse Arthars before the skipper extended the margin to eight from a high tackle penalty.
Haas thundered through the tiring defence, including a stationary Jason Taumalolo and an indifferent Scott Drinkwater to ice the victory before a late Jaxon Purdue consolation try.
“Some of the great front-rowers in the history of the game deserved their place but none of them could run like that,” Panthers legend Greg Alexander said on Fox League. “Some were athletic but not like that. He’s got everything.”
Former Warriors halfback Shaun Johnson added: “It’s unfair. He reminds me of when I played under 9s and you’d just give it to the biggest, fastest player on the field.
“He just bullied the opposition for 80 minutes.”
This was easily their best performance of the young season. But that’s not saying much after the woeful efforts they put in as they copped pastings from Manly and Cronulla in the opening fortnight.
With the pressure ramping up on coach Todd Payten, his players rolled up their sleeves, which is a sign that they have not given up – crucial for a coach on the hot seat.
But they lost and are now 0-3 and hopes of repeating last season’s trip to the finals after finishing fifth are fading quicker than curtains in North Queensland during daylight savings.
Despite improved defensive application, they still conceded seven line breaks – better than the combined 21 from their first two losses but still way too many.
“I felt they were on the rack, but we had some poor moments which is a sign of low confidence,” Payten said.
“We feel under pressure as a club and it’s justified. We are in a tough spot and there’s no magic bullet. It’s just had work and graft.”
Queensland coach Billy Slater indicated earlier this week on his podcast that it’s going to be tough to choose a fullback come Origin time.
That is because Newcastle ace Kalyn Ponga is one of the form players in the NRL and Reece Walsh’s start to 2025 has been, well, not formidable at all.
Even in their opening-round win over the Roosters he was below his best and last week against Canberra and this time around against the Cowboys, he was pushing passes and making handling errors worse by giving away dopey penalties.
There is of course a long way to go between now and Origin time and injury may force Slater’s hand either way but if this trend continues it will be an easy choice for the Maroons selectors.
The Warriors had the upper hand for the first hour of their clash with the Roosters at Go Media Stadium but after trading tries to Naufahu Whyte and Ali Leiataua, the visitors looked like they were going to cling to a 6-4 lead until the final siren.
Warriors centre Adam Pompey appeared certain to get his team in front when he reached out to score in the corner but Roosters skipper James Tedesco slid across in the nick of time to prevent him from touching down.
After an incisive run from winger Taine Tuaupiki, five-eighth Chanel Harris-Tavita produced a piece of individual brilliance to loft a high kick and regather by outleaping Tedesco for an 8-6 lead.
Leiataua continued his red-hot start to the season when he finished off a right-side raid by dummying over to seal the victory in the 70th minute.
It was not a pretty game in any sense of the word – Roosters hooker Connor Watson was concussed in the first half and Warriors winger Roger Tuivasa-Sheck limped off with a hamstring injury in the second.
Dropsy was a common ailment with both teams catching the bug.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson said he really liked his team’s attitude but they didn’t play smart with the ball when they should have been closing out the match.
“We were searching for 12-4 when it was 6-4 and we should have just sat and been uncomfortable for a bit longer so that was a real lesson for us,” he said.
“It was one we felt like got away.”
Warriors coach Andrew Webster was proud of the way his team stuck to their guns and paid trubute to Tuivasa-Sheck for denying Dominic Young a try even though he had already pinged his hamstring.
“He got in the line and while we’re trying to make a sub, comes up with the tackle.
“We wanted to set the game up late and come over the top and that’s what we did,” he said.
“In the past there is an element of when we don’t score, mentally we’re beaten. At the moment when we don’t score we’re ready for the next set. Every time we do that we’re just putting another nail in the coffin for them.”
Roosters centre Mark Nawaqanitawase and Broncos prop Payne Haas each claimed four-pointers which would have been sensational efforts on Friday night on either side of the Tasman Sea.
Nawaqanitawase sprinted into the clear down the left edge against the Warriors, chipped ahead and regathered as he crossed the line but juggled the bouncing ball and by the time he planted it on the slippery turf, he had slid over the dead-ball line.
Haas made his way to the stripe in a totally different fashion – bashing and barging through defenders but was grassed just short of the line from behind by Reece Robson and was correctly ruled to have made a double movement.
Oh, well – perhaps Robson will get tackle of the year instead. And Haas might still end with the try award for his late individual effort.
If you are unsure about whether injuries are being faked for penalties, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad is the latest player to either be caught red handed or the beneficiary of a remarkable recovery.
During the second half in Auckland, he was unable to play the ball after a two-man tackle from the Roosters with one of the defenders accidentally exerting pressure on the back of his head as they wrestled him to the ground.
CNK was incapacitated, clutching at his neck and could not possibly play on, coincidentally for the precise amount of time it took the referee to check the incident with the Bunker and declare no penalty was warranted.
He then played the ball and was somehow able to take the next hit-up on the following play, hurtling headlong into the teeth of the defensive line.
A crusher tackle is one where a defender grabs a ball runner and deliberately places their body weight on the back of their neck or head. It’s an insidious practice which needs to be penalised strongly if it ever happens but it appears the majority of tackles that fall into this category are accidents and players are coerced to stay down if they think there’s a chance to earn their team an unfair advantage.