{"id":552194,"date":"2026-07-31T00:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/552194\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:57:09","slug":"nrls-biggest-loss-since-1935-cowboys-thrashed-82-12-by-roosters-in-clubs-darkest-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/552194\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL\u2019s biggest loss since 1935: Cowboys thrashed 82-12 by Roosters in club\u2019s \u2018darkest day\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">The team total of 82 was the most since the Roosters beat Canterbury 87-7 in 1935. It was also the third-highest in premiership history and the most in the NRL era.<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">The Roosters also equalled the NRL record for most points by halftime after putting 48 past the home side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely unacceptable,\u201d Payten said after the match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cAs coach of this club, it\u2019s one of our darkest days, if not the darkest day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019d like to apologise to our members and fans who were out there today and those that watched it at home. Just not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">Cowboys captain Reuben Cotter described the result as \u201cembarrassing\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt was pretty embarrassing &#8230; There\u2019s not much to say really,\u201d Cotter told Nine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI thought we\u2019d kicked off and started with intensity but we were just so loose right across the park. <\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt was pretty obvious where they were coming, straight through the front door and sort of just snowballed from the kickoff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">The result is a big blow for the Cowboys\u2019 top eight aspirations as they could be overtaken by the Bulldogs, should they beat the Storm on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">It also wasn\u2019t a good outcome for the Warriors, who now trail the second-placed Roosters by four points in the standings. The Warriors can close the gap to two points with a win over the Titans on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">The once healthy differential advantage the Warriors held over rival teams chasing a spot inside the top four has also disintegrated. <\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">The Warriors hold a +190, while the Roosters\u2019 is now +155.<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\">The Sharks \u2013 equal with the Warriors on 30 points \u2013 are on +161 after winning their last four games by a combined 116 points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"TErgZkLeGvuOzWkL\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/author\/ben-francis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/author\/ben-francis\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Francis<\/a> is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The team total of 82 was the most since the Roosters beat Canterbury 87-7 in 1935. It was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[270996,270997,74,38860,6326,3595,46326,1320,56606,85372,152625,5972,78,11556,2225,10543,3025,111,139,529,59741,69,270998,44625,3654,96689,6102,7811,213,1734,124443,22505,1530],"class_list":["post-552194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-270996","tag-270997","tag-after","tag-apologised","tag-biggest","tag-by","tag-clubs","tag-coach","tag-conceded","tag-cowboys","tag-darkest","tag-day","tag-in","tag-losing","tag-loss","tag-match","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nrls","tag-nz","tag-payten","tag-points","tag-queensland","tag-roosters","tag-side","tag-since","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-thrashed","tag-todd","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552194","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=552194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}