most capped player in North Queensland history<\/a>, the veteran will become the first Cowboy to achieve the 300-match milestone when he runs out for the clash.\u00a0<\/p>\nTaumalolo will look to put his side on the front foot as they host the competition leaders in a big test of the Cowboys’ premiership aspirations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Todd Payten’s men have been hot and cold in recent weeks and they suffered a disappointing loss to the Warriors last Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A date with Penrith marks a new test, with Ivan Cleary’s men desperate to bounce back from a shock loss to the Titans in Round 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The battle between fullbacks Scott Drinkwater and Dylan Edwards will be fascinating, while Jaxon Purdue and Blaize Talagi are two of the most exciting young playmakers in the game.<\/p>\n
Team News<\/p>\n
Cowboys:\u00a0No late changes on game day. Jason Taumalolo is set to start at prop for his 300th game in the NRL after coming off the bench last week. Young playmaker Liam Sutton could add to his four NRL appearances after coming on to the six-man bench. Halfback Tom Dearden remains at least another week away from returning from an ankle injury suffered in Round 10. John Bateman has been added to the six-man bench.<\/p>\n
Panthers: Liam Henry has been promoted to the starting side and Lindsay Smith goes to the bench in a late switch. Origin guns Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Brian To’o will all return as Penrith look to rebound from a tight loss to the Titans. Paul Alamoti will shift to centre to accommodate To’o’s return while Luke Garner, Liam Henry and Jack Cogger will all move to the interchange.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stat Attack<\/p>\n
The Cowboys have the best winning record against the Panthers of any team over the past five seasons.
\nThe Panthers have conceded only 43 points in their last four games.
\nCowboys winger Murray Taulagi has scored seven tries in his last four games at QCB Stadium.
\nPanthers winger Brian To\u2019o has scored seven tries in seven games against the Cowboys.
\nCowboys prop Jason Taumalolo will play his 300th NRL game.<\/p>\n
Stats supplied by David Middleton, League Information Services,\u00a0author of the\u00a0official annual of the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cowboys are determined to celebrate Jason Taumalolo’s 300th NRL game in style when they host the Panthers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-498364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498364","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=498364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}