Jackson Ford’s hopes of a NSW debut in the State of Origin decider appear over after the superstar Warriors prop suffered a pectoral injury in the 38-20 defeat of North Queensland.<\/p>\n
Starting on a wing for the first time since 2017, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad crossed for four tries in the opening NRL game at Christchurch’s new stadium, helping the Warriors snap their two-game losing streak.<\/p>\n
But today’s victory came at a heavy cost for the second-placed Kiwi side as Ford, who led the Dally M Medal count earlier in the season, left the field following a first-half tackle on Tom Chester.<\/p>\n
A surprising omission from the first two Origin games, Ford appeared in the mix for a call-up, with the Blues contemplating changes after their game-two humiliation.<\/p>\n
But even a minor pectoral injury is likely to require multiple weeks on the sidelines, and teams for Origin III will be picked after next weekend.<\/p>\n
Pectoral injuries can sometimes require months to heal, so Ford is not guaranteed to return this season if scans show a severe tear.<\/p>\n
Nicoll-Klokstad had his first two tries inside 10 minutes as hooker Wayde Egan helped the fast-starting Warriors roll through their undisciplined visitors.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys conceded three penalties in the opening six minutes and referee Grant Atkins gave co-captain Reuben Cotter a talking-to when they leaked two more by the 20-minute mark.<\/p>\n
Star fullback Scott Drinkwater helped North Queensland equalise, putting Braidon Burns over with a long ball to the right, then scoring himself.<\/p>\n
However, Nicoll-Klokstad completed his first-half hat-trick on a 30-metre tear down the left, before another shift helped him to the first four-try haul of his 143-game NRL career.<\/p>\n
Veteran prop Jason Taumalolo went to the sin bin for up-ending Nicoll-Klokstad in the second half, and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak made it a three-score game while the Warriors had the extra man.<\/p>\n
The hosts appeared unlikely to be chased down from there.<\/p>\n
Taumalolo had been due to play his 300th NRL game next week, but a charge from the match review committee could place the celebrations on hold.<\/p>\n
Coach Todd Payten secured his long-term future with a contract extension on Saturday, but a third-straight loss makes the Cowboys’ immediate future of pressing concern.<\/p>\n
The ninth-placed Cowboys host ladder-leading Penrith next week as they fight to put their season back on track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jackson Ford’s hopes of a NSW debut in the State of Origin decider appear over after the superstar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[158,111,139,69,213,3006],"class_list":["post-488842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports","tag-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}