Cowboys leave it late

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A Matt Bowen try in the 79th minute has delivered North Queensland a sensational 28-26 win over Brisbane in a see-sawing classic at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

In a match that saw countless lead changes, the Cowboys took an 18-6, three tries to one, lead into the break, before two special tries from birthday-boy Bowen were needed to overcome the second-half fightback from the Broncos.

Brisbane looked to have rescued the show when Ben Te'o crashed over to retake the lead in the 69th minute, but a desperate dash by Bowen from the back of the scrum snatched victory back for the visitors.

And Bowen had already saved the day once.

Two tries to start the second half gave Brisbane all the momentum, until Johnathan Thurston combined with his full-back in a vintage Cowboys play.

Pressured to kick, Thurston took the ball to the line and offloaded to Bowen, who hit the hole and sliced left and right in a rapid 30-metre run to the line.

There were more errors from both sides that neither coach would have enjoyed seeing, but for the 43,171 fans it was a high-paced and entertaining stoush from start to finish.

Petero Civoniceva earned one of the strongest ovations of the night when he entered the fray in the 19th minute, and the warhorse didn't disappoint in his return to to Broncos colours, gaining 12 metres with his first hit-up and working effectively in a losing effort.

North Queensland's second try of the night came in highly controversial fashion, as interchange hooker James Segeyaro was afforded the benefit of the doubt, rushing in from what appeared an offside position to pick up a loose ball that had been stripped from Josh Hoffman in a one-on-one Bowen tackle, following a Thurston grubber that bounced back off the goal post.

The game's first try came in the fifth minute through the simplest of Cowboys decoy plays, with hooker Aaron Payne darting from dummy and cutting out one runner to send Dallas Johnson in under the posts untouched.

Justin Hodges was held up searching for the reply shortly after, but Jharal Yow Yeh made no mistake in the next set, picking up a bouncing cut-out pass from Sam Thaiday to capitalise on the overlap with a try in the corner.

Brisbane had the lead midway through the first, but the Cowboys finished the half with a flurry, taking a 16-8 advantage into the sheds after Brent Tate was on hand to ground an unclaimed cross-field kick from Bowen shortly before the hooter.

Brisbane came back into the picture with the resumption of play, when Corey Norman jarred the ball loose from Bowen on the kick return, allowing Josh McGuire to pick up and lunge over the line.

Gerard Beale put Brisbane in front soon after, taking a basketball-style offload from Jack Reed into the corner, on the back of some enterprising broken-play attack

Bowen's first speccy looked to have turned the game back to the visitors, but the Broncos fought on, coming back into the game with a lovely team play culminating in a Hodges offload for Te'o to score.

Brisbane: 26Tries: Yow Yeh, McGuire, Beale, Te'oCon: Parker 5

North Queensland: 28Tries: Johnson, Segeyaro, Tate, Bowen 2Con: Thurston 4

Crowd: 43,171 at Suncorp Stadium

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