Young gun blows up at referee as Cowboys erase 70-point loss
Cowboys young gun Jaxon Purdue was left irate with referee Adam Gee during the second half of his side’s 30-8 win over the Titans on Thursday night.
In a game where the teams confusingly swapped jersey colours for Indigenous Round - Gold Coast donning navy blue and North Queensland in teal - it was the visitors who put last week’s horrific 82-12 drubbing behind them with a crucial win at Cbus Super Stadium, keeping their NRL finals hopes alive.
Jason Taumalolo celebrates a try against the Titans. Getty Images
Scott Drinkwater took a crucial step to leaving last week behind him in the early stages, nailing a brilliant 40/20 to put the Cowboys in good field position, before veteran enforcer Jason Taumalolo muscled his way over to score.
Jake Clifford put the visitors further ahead with an incredibly soft try and it wasn’t the last of them either, with Heilum Luki carrying multiple defenders over the line to extend his side’s lead to 18-4 right before half time.
“It’s like under 8s, just give it to the big kid,” Peter Psaltis said on Nine.
Cameron Smith admitted the home side’s mistakes had come back to bite them.
“Cowboys have capitalised on a couple of really poor errors, they’ve been invited into good field position,” the former Queensland captain said.
Gold Coast rallied after the break and were gifted a golden opportunity when Purdue was sin binned for a professional foul.
After making a desperate cover tackle on AJ Brimson, the 21-year-old got himself tangled with the Titans star and was penalised for holding down in the ruck.
Purdue got to his feet straight away and pleaded his case, but referee Gee already had both hands up, signalling for the halfback to leave the field.
He then stayed on the field for an extended period protesting the decision.
“He’s still not off the field here,” Psaltis said on commentary.
“If he doesn’t be careful, it might be more than 10 minutes here - that’s one thing the officials are clamping down on.”
Replays showed that Reuben Cotter attempted to drag Purdue off the tackle, but it wasn’t quick enough for the official’s liking.
Purdue would eventually jog off the field as the small Gold Coast crowd let him know their thoughts, booing the talented Mackay product off.
Speaking to Nine post-game, Purdue revealed he tried to get captain Reuben Cotter to challenge the decision, but was told it wasn’t allowed.
Jaxon Purdue argues with referee Adam Gee. Nine
“It was a bit of a weird one, I couldn’t really get up,” he said.
“I was trying to get Reubs to challenge it, but the ref said you can’t even challenge.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, it always sucks to get 10 in the bin when it’s such a grinding game like that and let the boys down.
Dragons-bound winger Phillip Sami scored his second try of the night immediately after Purdue’s sin bin, narrowing the margin and giving the crowd some hope.
But straight after he returned to the field, Purdue made up for his absence with a blistering solo try that gave the Cowboys a much-needed buffer.
“He will feel good about that too, because he just let his team down for 10 minutes with that sin bin,” Smith said after the four-pointer.
Luki put the icing on the cake with a tremendous runaway try, sealing the result and making it a double for himself in the process.
