Johnathan Thurston's golden patch continued at Mt Smart Stadium on Sunday, the halfback scoring his sixth try in 10 days to give North Queensland their first NRL win in Auckland since 2005.

Thurston, who scored two tries for the Kangaroos and three for the Cowboys last weekend, scored the second of his team's six four-pointers and had a big hand in setting up two others as the Cowboys romped to a 34-12 win at Mt Smart Stadium.

The two-time Dally M winner was also on fire with the boot, landing five conversions from some tricky angles.

But this wasn't just the Thurston show.

Backs Matt Bowen and Willie Tonga were also outstanding as the Cowboys soaked up waves of Warriors attacks and then proved successful on the counter.

The good vibe about the Warriors at the beginning of the season has all but evaporated as their bright start has transformed into a mid-season slump.

The Warriors have won just one of their last seven games and desperately need to pick up something away against the struggling Canberra next weekend to stay in the finals hunt.

The Cowboys had the opening try after eight minutes when lock Luke O'Donnell cut inside Warriors centre Joel Moon to touch down.

Thurston was all class in the 29th minute as he dummied left to send Sam Rapira the wrong way then cut back in the other direction for the try.

His conversion made it 10-2 at halftime.

The Warriors struck back in the 48th minute as Nathan Fien received a pass from Lance Hohia and exploded through the visitors' defence to score.

But soon after Tonga gathered Thurston's grubber to go in under the sticks to take the margin to 16-8.

Cowboys interchange player James Tamou was given a 10-minute spell in the sin bin for not releasing Jerome Ropati after the tackle and the Warriors made the most of the advantage immediately with Denan Kemp scoring in the corner in the 60th minute.

It looked like game-on as the margin was pulled back 16-12 but the Cowboys killed-off the match with three tries in the final seven minutes.

Ashley Graham scored his first try of the year in the 73rd minute, while Ben Farrar and Bowen's four-pointers rubbed salt into the wounds of the 16,345 spectators who were already heading towards the carparks in their droves.

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