The Sharks overcame the sin-binning of hooker Blayke Brailey to inflict a rare defeat for the Cowboys in Townsville on Friday night.
The 26-12 triumph was Cronulla's fifth in a row and moved Craig Fitzgibbon's men into equal second place with North Queensland on 26 points.
The Cowboys were without Origin stars Valentine Holmes, Tom Dearden and Jeremiah Nanai but remained in the contest until midway through the second half after a controversial disallowed try to star forward Jason Taumalolo.
Cronulla scored two late tries to seal the win and set up a top-of-the-table clash with premiers Penrith next Friday night.
Match snapshot
- After scoring a hat-trick of tries in last weekend's defeat of Melbourne, Jesse Ramien picked up where he left off to opening the scoring in just the fourth minute.
- The try followed a penalty against Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt for a late tackle on Cronulla opposite Ronaldo Mulitalo and the Sharks quickly spread the ball before Ramien bumped off three defenders to score.
- Ramien then grabbed his second try in the 20th minute from close range when he pirouetted out of dummy half following a Matt Moylan break and forced his way through the attempted tackles of Ben Hampton and Luciano Leilua.
- The Cowboys responded just four minutes later when Leilua shovelled the ball to centre Peta Hiku for Feldt to score in the corner and Chad Townsend converted against his former club.
- A Nicho Hynes penalty goal put the Sharks ahead 14-6 but the home team continued to attack Cronulla's line and after a series of infringements hooker Blayke Brailey was sent to the sin-bin for holding down Tom Gilbert.
- The Cowboys immediately made them pay, with Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow slicing between Ramien and Hynes before beating Will Kennedy on an angled run off a Townsend pass to reduce the deficit to 14-12 at halftime.
- A disallowed Jason Taumalolo try midway through the second half after Reece Robson was ruled to have obstruct Braden Hamlin-Uele from making a tackle was as close as the Cowboys came to scoring in the second half.
- The Sharks went down the other end on the ensuing set of six before Teig Wilton pounced on an in-goal fumble by Hampton from a Hynes grubber and a 70th minute Sione Katoa try sealed the win.
Play of the game
The Sharks were hanging on for dear life midway through the second half after Jason Taumalolo charged his way over the line only to have the try disallowed for an obstruction.
From the penalty Cronulla travelled the length of the field and second-rower Teig Wilton scored off a Nicho Hynes grubber after Ben Hampton fumbled in-goal to give the visitors a 20-12 lead.
Click here to read the full original article
Source: NRL.com