KEY POINTS:
A poor first half aggravated by a bad refereeing call cost the Warriors victory in Townsville.
The positive from the game is that, down 18-0, they did not go belly-up but rather came back to score two good tries and finish full of running when the whistle went.
Coach Ivan Cleary admitted they were off their game early on but did not have a clear idea why after a full week of preparation on the Gold Coast.
"We were a few cogs down, I don't know exactly why. We didn't start well. We have to get back to where we were."
There were no injuries and Cleary has options for change if he wants it - five-eighth Jerome Ropati coming through his return with the Auckland Lions to score the winning try in a 28-24 victory over Balmain-Ryde in the New South Wales premier league and wing Michael Crockett completing that game.
Best again and as usual was Steve Price who returned a remarkable 223 metres gain and made 21 tackles, three nights after State of Origin.
But the locals' pack stood up too, prop Shane Tronc delivering 150m and 44 tackles and former Warrior Sione Faumuina with 18 tackles plus 163m gained, that including a 40m run for the Cowboys' third try.
The Cowboys' second try just before the break and third just after it came while Warriors' wing Patrick Ah Van was in the sin-bin.
Cowboys half Johnathan Thurston had grubbered the ball through then rekicked it into the Warriors' in-goal. Ah Van, without a ball, took his opposite Ty Williams out to prevent a try and there was no argument with the sin-binning. Carl Webb ran in from the penalty. Faumuina caught a cross-field kick and beat the depleted defence to make it 18-0.
Earlier, though, the Warriors had been denied unjustly. At 23 minutes the Cowboys scored when centre Ashley Graham was first to a kick from five-eighth Ben Farrar. The Warriors replied immediately through well-worked plays and put fullback Wade McKinnon under the posts.
The referee called for a video check and video ref Steve Nash ruled the points out, making an obstruction call on Wairangi Koopu and awarding the Cowboys a penalty.
A) Koopu had his back to the defenders and B) none of them would have gotten anywhere near McKinnon.
It took momentum from the Warriors, who should have been level at 6-all. "It was a bit unfortunate," Cleary said.
The loss added some importance to their game at home to the erratic Dragons next weekend, Cleary said.
"It will be good to get home and prepare really hard," he said before travelling to Auckland yesterday.
Certainly, if the Warriors start against the Dragons as they finished in Townsville, they will give themselves every chance of winning.
The Lions led 24-6 at halftime thanks to a double to secondrower Sonny Fai and one try each to wingers Crockett and Malo Solomona at Leichhardt Oval on Saturday night.
Balmain-Ryde came back with fullback Shannon McDonnell getting a hat-trick before Ropati finished things to keep the Lions in with a sniff of the playoffs in premier league.
The stats
Cowboys
Score 18
Penalties 6
Tackles 324
Missed tackles 52
Line breaks 3
Off-loads 21
Errors 13
Warriors
Score 12
Penalties 9
Tackles 302
Missed tackles 32
Line breaks 5
Off-loads 24
Errors 16
Crowd 19,964