Reuben Cotter and Sam Walker could be in camp together as Queensland State of Origin teammates in just a couple of days.
During the clash between the Cowboys and Roosters on Saturday night, won by North Queensland 18-12, Cotter was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul against Walker.
The crafty Roosters halfback sniffed an opportunity and chased it as the Tricolours trailed the Cowboys in the 55th minute at Suncorp Stadium.
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The Origin hopeful beat Reed Mahoney with some nimble footwork deep in Cowboys territory.
He then put boot to ball, hoping to regather it and score under the posts, but Cotter – who, admittedly, was impeded by a heavily padded upright – tackled him as he chased it.
Reuben Cotter heads to the sin bin. Getty
While Cotter prevented Walker from scoring a try by tackling him illegally, he had to spend 10 minutes off the field and the Roosters crossed a four-pointer in the following set anyway, via Hugo Savala.
But the Cowboys defended staunchly with one man down over the remainder of Cotter’s time in the sin bin, and continued to do so once the tough middle forward was back on the field, to secure a Magic Round victory.
Cowboys coach Todd Payten was flabbergasted about the sin-binning of Cotter.
“I think if you slow it down like they do it is very hard to come up with the right call,” Payten said in his post-match press conference.
“I just asked them to watch that at normal speed because if you slow it down like they did you are going to find something wrong with it.
“I’ll ask some questions, but I don’t want to take away from how tough and gritty we were by making too harsh a comment.”
Having said that, he conceded those kinds of calls can define who makes the finals and who doesn’t and whether contracts are renewed.
“They have a huge impact on the game,” Payten said.
“Off the back of that work and effort we put in, we are going to have to look at how we train this week and manipulate what we do, but that’s another by-product of those type of calls.
“Playing with 12 men for 20 minutes is hard to do.”
Earlier, Fetalaiga Pauga was poleaxed mid-air and Matt Lodge was dumped in the sin bin during a drama-filled opening half.
The 40,000 fans at Suncorp Stadium gasped as one when Roosters winger Pauga was smashed by Cowboys centre Tom Chester in the eighth minute.
The Cowboys outside back crashed into Pauga’s legs as he chased a kick and for a fleeting moment it appeared the Roosters winger may be headed for the turf head-first.
He didn’t land head-first but he did leave the field for a head injury assessment, which he passed.
Roosters winger Cody Ramsey crossed for the first try of the game a minute after Pauga’s heavy fall, before Lodge collected Lindsay Collins high in the first tackle after the kick-off that followed.
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It appeared as though Lodge first made contact with Collins’ shoulder, before his arm crept up and smacked the Roosters enforcer in the jaw.
Collins, who is expected to be named in Billy Slater’s Queensland team for State of Origin I on Monday, left the field but returned.
Roosters winger Daniel Tupou limped off with a calf injury in only the sixth minute and didn’t return.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson lamented his side’s inability to capitalise on having an extra man on the field for 20 minutes of the game.
“It was really disappointing to see us lose the style of play that we’ve been working really hard on and not being able to pull apart a team that gave us two sin-bins and multiple opportunities,” Robinson said in his post-game press conference.
The Cowboys won despite the absence of Tom Dearden (syndesmosis) and Jason Taumalolo, who was rested.