{"id":598100,"date":"2026-04-10T15:17:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/598100\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:17:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:17:21","slug":"late-luki-try-sinks-broncos-as-cowboys-win-four-on-trot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/598100\/","title":{"rendered":"Late Luki try sinks Broncos as Cowboys win four on trot"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Queensland second-rower Heilum Luki secured his side a fourth win on the trot with a late try in a classic Queensland derby showdown with Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

The 35-31 win featured a stunning display by Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater.<\/p>\n

Brisbane young gun halfback Tom Duffy had a brilliant club debut against his former team.<\/p>\n

Duffy, 22, landed a 75th-minute field goal with ice in his veins for the hosts to take a 31-30 lead. Drinkwater responded with his own one-pointer two minutes later, before Luki dived over out wide with two minutes left.<\/p>\n

Duffy filled in for injured captain Adam Reynolds with aplomb to set up two tries and lay on three linebreak assists in front of 45,582 fans at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

The Broncos lost two hookers — Cory Paix and Blake Mozer — to concussion in the second half, while lock Pat Carrigan was put on report.<\/p>\n

Mozer was playing his first NRL match in 18 months but took a fierce blow to his jaw tackling Cowboys giant Jason Taumalolo.<\/p>\n

The 35-31 win featured a stunning display by Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater.\u00a0Chris Hyde\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Broncos were without injured star trio Reece Walsh, Reynolds and Ben Hunt.<\/p>\n

The first half was dominated by the creative genius of Drinkwater and the speed of centre Jaxon Purdue.<\/p>\n

Drinkwater has been given permission to negotiate a deal elsewhere for the final year of his contract in 2027.<\/p>\n

Purdue, who inked a $3 million four-year extension on Tuesday, is ironically the man likely to replace Drinkwater at fullback.<\/p>\n

The visitors dominated the first half with 71% of the territory but only led 24-18 after the Broncos struck three times, largely against the run of play. The hosts also scrambled well to restrict the damage.<\/p>\n

Duffy had a great start to the match, with a nifty short grubber kick setting up centre Kotoni Staggs for the opening try.<\/p>\n

Purdue lit up the stadium with a 75m run that included a change of direction and acceleration that left Duffy and Broncos fullback Jesse Arthars in his wake.<\/p>\n

Drinkwater, who had set up the Purdu try, laid on another for Zac Laybutt and the visitors led 12-6.<\/p>\n

Both tries were scored with Broncos captain Pat Carrigan in the sin bin for a shoulder to the head of Cowboys centre Tom Chester.<\/p>\n

Cowboys bench hooker Soni Luke, who replaced concussed starting No.9 Reed Mahoney, danced over from dummy-half..<\/p>\n

Broncos five-eighth Ezra Mam struck a blow when his cutout pass sent winger Josiah Karapani over.<\/p>\n

Drinkwater pulled in a Luki pass one-handed and at speed in another stunning display of skill to score as Mam and centre Gehamat Shibasaki struggled on the left edge in defence.<\/p>\n

Lock forward Carrigan found a pass for the ages to put a flying Arthars over 40 seconds before halftime, and somehow the Broncos trailed by only six.<\/p>\n

After the break a stellar cutout pass by Duffy set Karapani clear and his in-field kick was brilliantly grounded by Mam and it was 24-24.<\/p>\n

Brisbane prop Ben Talty stormed in off a Duffy pass but Chester, who was phenomenal for the Cowboys, levelled at 30-30 to set up a grandstand finish.<\/p>\n

Veteran Cowboys lock Taumalolo and Broncos prop Payne Haas were both enormous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Queensland second-rower Heilum Luki secured his side a fourth win on the trot with a late try…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-598100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}