Wests Tigers 40 Cowboys 16

THE only person to have experienced more outrageous good fortune than North Queensland halfback Travis Burns recently were the winners of the $58 million Powerball draw.

Burns twice avoided being sent off for tackles in last night's loss to Wests Tigers that leave him facing a long suspension when the NRL judiciary meets to decide his fate.

Playing halfback for the Cowboys while Johnathan Thurston is in Queensland Origin camp, Burns appeared to clobber giant Tigers winger Taniela Tuiaki across the bridge of the nose in the 10th minute at Campbelltown Sports Stadium.

The crowd screamed, "Off, off!" but referee Gavin Badger merely placed him on report.

Four minutes later, Burns lifted Tigers centre Chris Lawrence past the horizontal.

The masses were again baying for his blood as the big-screen replays showed Lawrence landing on the top of his head.

But Badger again elected to let Burns stay on the field.

Calls for a weight-division competition appeared to have been heeded before kick-off when featherweight Tigers captain Brett Hodgson tossed the coin for one of the junior games.

Having mastered the art of punching above his weight, Hodgson was granted permission to back up in first grade, where he had an old-fashioned blinder alongside a rejuvenated Benji Marshall.

The Tigers' last 90-metre try was such a blur of offloads and sidesteps with the crowd going ape that it felt like the try of the century.

Tigers halfback Mathew Head kicked for Dean Collis to score just five minutes after hostilities had begun between two clubs who are fast developing a seething rivalry, stemming from the wishbone tackle on Cowboys forward Luke O'Donnell last year.

Hodgson landed the conversion and the hosts were 6-0 up.

Hodgson gave a brilliant one-handed back-handed pass to send winger Shannon McDonnell over for the Tigers second try at the end of a scintillating attacking movement that invoked memories of the glory days of 2005.

When Head strolled through some soft defence, the ugliness from the Cowboys was not all to do with Burns's tackles.

They were already 16-0 down and gone when a Hodgson grubber kick led to a Ben Te'o try and the Cowboys were even more gone at 22-0 after 27 minutes.

A Nick Slyney try made it 22-6 at half-time.

Burns endeared himself even further to the crowd straight after the break by sending Ty Williams over in the corner and, at 22-10, maybe the Cowboys were not gone after all.

Peace was restored when fanciful claims of a try to Cowboys winger John Williams were rejected.

The killer blow came from powerhouse Tigers forward Chris Heighington when he grounded a Head grubber - thanks mainly to Cowboys defenders Williams and Anthony Watts who tripped over each other in a bungled attempt to avert disaster.

Only then did the lynch mob, the crowd, stop hissing.

They were in raptures when Marshall, gaining confidence inch by inch after his horror run with injuries, came up with a step-jink-step-shuffle-step routine only he can do to score.

And Hodgson scored a well-deserved four-pointer to finish the scoring.

WESTS TIGERS 40 (D Collis M Head C Heighington B Hodgson B Marshall S McDonnell B Te'o tries B Hodgson 6 goals) bt NORTH QUEENSLAND 16 (B Harris N Slyney T Williams tries J Williams 2 goals) at Campbelltown Stadium. Referee: G Badger. Crowd: 10,488.