North Queensland captain Johnathan Thurston has pulled off his second star performance in as many days scoring a hat-trick in his side's 24-20 NRL victory over St George Illawarra.

Thurston starred for the Cowboys, only 24 hours after directing Australia to victory over the Kiwis scoring 20 points in a masterful performance at Dairy Farmers Stadium.

Dragons winger Brett Morris managed to out-do the Australian halfback with four tries of his own but it wasn't enough to get the his side home.

And Wayne Bennett's side could pay a heavy price with Kangaroos winger Darius Boyd limping from the field with an injury to his right leg in the 58th minute.

Both teams entered the clash with players backing up from Friday's representative commitments but it was Thurston who showed his class with a superb opening try for the Cowboys.

Two first half-tries to Brett Morris including a spectacular 95-metre effort following an Ash Graham knock-on engineered a 14-8 half-time lead for the high-flying Dragons.

The Cowboys came out firing straight after the break and were unlucky not to post two tries with Thurston denied after video referee Tim Mander ruled O'Donnell had obstructed Jason Nightingale.

Nightingale was involved again stripping O'Donnell in a great try saving tackle.

The Cowboys finally capitalised when interchange giant James Tamou crossed next to the posts with Thurston adding the extras to make it 18-10.

Thurston grabbed his third try nine minutes from time only to see Morris grab his fourth (78th) to set up a grandstand finish.

The Dragons almost stole the points in the last play of the game but Jason Nightingale's pass to a wide open Wendell Sailor flew into touch with the line at the former Origin star's mercy.

The Cowboys were forced to fight back after another disappointing start.

"We had a bit of a chat about a couple of things (at the half), we were a bit disappointed about a couple of things," North Queensland coach Neil Henry said.

"We made quite a few errors, I think our completion rate was about 50 per cent there.

"The main reason (the win) is important is because we are at home and our record hasn't been very good here."

Wayne Bennett was also critical of the Dragons' start to the game but refused to blame his side's high number of players backing up from rep duty as the reason for the loss.

"I thought we started poorly actually," he said.

"Absolutely (penalties and dropped ball) was all part of the problem.

"It is going to be like that for the next couple of months.

"It is not the rep program, it's the changes to your team every week and every day and the guys beside them having enough confidence to get the job done."

The veteran coach allayed fears rep star Boyd was seriously hurt.

"He's OK, he is not too injured," he said.

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