Cowboys 28 Raiders 24

The Cowboys could be stripped of their two competition points after winning a controversial match against the Canberra Raiders last night by four points.

The Cowboys appeared to have 14 players on the field shortly after half-time, with five-eighth Justin Smith still on the field at the same time as his replacement.

NRL officials will view video tape of the game to determine if the team should be denied the two points, but the Raiders, who were extremely unlucky with several video referee decisions, will not be able to claim the two points at their expense.

The most critical point of the thrilling game occurred with just eight minutes of the match remaining. The Cowboys forged to a controversial eight-point lead when video referee Phil Cooley made an extraordinary decision that Cowboys winger Ty Williams was not offside, nor did Matt Bowen knock-on just as Raiders five-eighth Terry Campese was about to score his third try.

Bowen had knocked the ball out of Campese's arm, kicking it forward to Williams, who then put Brenton Bowen away for his second try, a length-of-the-field effort.

The Raiders were also denied two tries by the video referee, the first when Glen Turner was ruled to have been held up over the line and the second when the speedy fullback William Zillman beat Cowboys halfback Johnathan Thurston for the ball but just scraped his foot on the dead ball as he grounded it.

As a measure of Thurston's frustration, he booted the ball deep into the crowd.

This was a match billed as the battle between master and apprentice and North Queensland coach Graham Murray got one over his one-time offsider, Canberra Raiders coach Neil Henry.

But it was Thurston who was both hero and villain in last night's chilly match at Canberra Stadium.

He created havoc with the Raiders' right-hand defence, setting up tries at every opportunity near the line with sliding runs and deft passes to winger Brenton Bowen and fullback Matt Bowen. He even started, and then finished off a try, again down the left-hand side in the 23rd minute.

But the Queensland Origin star was clearly troubled by his hand injury and failed to make vital tackles when in defence. Raiders centre Marshall Chalk steamrolled through Thurston on two occasions to score in the first half. And Campese exploited Thurston's reluctance to tackle around the ruck with two barnstorming tries, the first in the initial five minutes and then midway through the second half to get the home side within two points.

But in the end Thurston's main contribution was his goal-kicking, missing just the one attempt to give his coach Murray, the upper hand against his rookie rival.

It was that sort of see-sawing contest, a game full of attacking flair and defensive lapses, played on ground that was skate-slippery because of the zero degree temperatures but hugely entertaining for the 11,263 crowd.

The Raiders appeared stronger when Campese took over the kicking game from Michael Dobson and he booted a superb 40-20 kick early in the game.

The Green Machine had to move up a gear when their inspiring captain Alan Tongue was knocked in the head during a tackle and had to be stitched by the doctor in the dressing room.

Gus's verdict

YOU will go a long way to witness greater certainties beaten than the Raiders last night. They were easily the better team, played with absolutely no luck, bombed at least six tries and in the end were only beaten by goalkicking, with the Cowboys landing four conversions to the Raiders' two. The Raiders peppered away in the second half but just could not get the go-ahead score. The Cowboys' dynamic duo of Johnathan Thurston and Matt Bowen were absolutely outstanding. They set up all the Cowboys' tries and saved a heap between them, too. Great game.