Sandow steals the show for Souths
The performance of rookie halfback Chris Sandow overshadowed Craig Wing's return from injury in South Sydney's nail biting 29-28 victory over North Queensland.
Wing, playing his first match since the opening round when he injured his shoulder, was solid in his return and scored a try as the Rabbitohs came from 24 points down to steal a win.
But it was Sandow's composure to nail the match-winning drop goal with 30 seconds remaining that earned him high praise from Souths coach Jason Taylor.
"The field goal I got a bit frustrated," Taylor said.
"It looked like Chris was the only one that knew what we were trying to do and the rest of us were trying to score a try out on the sideline.
"That has been the thing that has impressed me most in every game that he has played.
"It is just his coolness under pressure.
"Some kicks he makes aren't perfect when the pressure is on but he still gets them in, he doesn't get flustered."
The Cowboys meanwhile were left to rue a number of decisions from referee Tony De Las Heras which saw possession wrongly handed to Souths according to North Queensland coach Ian Millward.
"The referee made some big calls ... on some six-to-go calls," Millward said.
"A big call on the stripping when the bloke just dropped it.
"Probably some big calls early in the game when there was a bloke who was making a tackle and a bloke kicked into touch and it came off him and there was six again."
The Cowboys were forced to defend for the majority of the second half despite scoring two early tries.
"We did a lot of tackling today even from the kick off so I was always concerned at the back end," Millward said.
"We were going to have to really batten down the hatches and obviously with some of those big decisions he was very keen to please at times."
It was the Cowboys' ninth consecutive loss, the second-worst losing streak in their history, and the news gets worse with Test prop Carl Webb facing a lengthy layoff after suffering a serious leg injury.
The Queensland representative was strong for the Cowboys before limping off midway through the first half.
"He has been to hospital and had a scan, they think there may be a break," Millward said.
"It has just ballooned up and he will have to have an MRI scan we will see more of the extent of it in 48 hours."
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