The Peanut's NRL Weekend


Cowboys v Dragons



9th May 10:30 BST

The round after the Anzac Test/City v Country game is always a tricky one with players backing up or not backing up and injuries etc but I feel that we have a good opportunity here to get some value. The Cowboys will be fresh with only Thurston and O’Donnell backing up whilst the Dragons have eight players who were involved on Friday.

NRL Table

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	PTS
1	Canterbury	8	7	0	1	212	140	12
2	St George/Illawarra	8	6	0	2	148	88	12
3	Brisbane	8	6	0	2	191	143	12
4	Gold Coast	8	6	0	2	154	122	12
5	Newcastle	8	5	0	3	182	158	10
6	Melbourne	8	4	1	3	119	114	9
7	South Sydney	8	4	0	4	170	140	8
8	Penrith	8	4	0	4	174	162	8
9	Wests	8	4	0	4	182	209	8
10	New Zealand Warriors	8	3	1	4	142	156	7
11	North Queensland	8	3	0	5	178	146	6
12	Sydney	8	3	0	5	147	188	6
13	Parramatta	8	3	0	5	118	202	6
14	Manly	8	2	0	6	125	164	4
15	Canberra	8	2	0	6	133	176	4
16	Cronulla	8	1	0	7	110	177	2

The Dragons have had a great season up until this point and sit in second place on the ladder whilst the Cowboys have been erratic at best.  Last week’s result against the Eels was a shocker and the bookies will have loved it as the Cowboys were heavily backed to overcome the -4 line in that game.  The Dragons, on the other hand, ground out a solid win against the Warriors.  The Cowboys have a good record against the Dragons winning the last three games and I fancy them to continue that run in Townsville.  The Dragons also have Smith out who gives them good go forward and is also key to their stingy defence.  A fresh team in the heat of Townsville could do for the Dragons.

Lineups:

Cowboys: 1. Matthew Bowen, 2. Ben Farrar, 3. Ashley Graham, 4. Willie Tonga, 5. John Williams, 6. Travis Burns, 7. Johnathan Thurston, 8. Shane Tronc, 9. Aaron Payne, 10. Matthew Scott, 11. Carl Webb, 12. Scott Bolton, 13. Luke O'Donnell. Interchange: 14. Grant Rovelli, 15. Steven Southern, 16. Antonio Kaufusi, 17. Steve Rapira, 18. James Tamou, 19. Ben Harris, 20. Dayne Weston, 21. Ty Williams. (4 to be omitted).

Dragons: 1. Darius Boyd, 2. Brett Morris, 3. Beau Scott, 4. Matt Cooper, 5. Wendell Sailor, 6. Jamie Soward, 7. Ben Hornby, 8. Justin Poore, 9. Dean Young, 10. Michael Weyman, 11. Matt Prior, 12. Ben Creagh, 13. Jeremy Smith. Interchange: 14. Dan Hunt, 15. Neville Costigan, 16. Jason Nightingale, 17. Jarrod Saffy, 19. Mathew Head. (1 to be omitted).

Pick: Cowboys -4 4 points @ 2.0 with Stan James

The Peanut