An eight-minute three-try blitz helped North Queensland secure a 30-10 NRL against the Warriors in Townsville on Saturday night.

Down 10-8 at halftime, the Cowboys looked to be in danger of succumbing to the Warriors for the first time in nine years, after the New Zealanders started stronger in the second half only to miss two golden opportunities.

But the second half surge gave the Cowboys their 10th win of the season, despite missing four regular first graders through injury and suspension.

The lead changed five times during the match, but the Cowboys opened the scoring through winger Kalifa Faifai Loa, who found plenty of space after collecting a wide cut-out pass from co-captain Johnathan Thurston.

First half tries to James Maloney and Shaun Johnson put the Warriors into the lead, with Ash Graham also crossing for the Cowboys.

The Warriors looked most likely to score early in the second half, but the Cowboys seized the lead in the 58th minute when Thurston passed out wide to Faifai Loa, who put in a chip and then collected before putting Thurston through to score.

Thurston was left limping and nursing his left ankle after his try - to the concern of the 16,081 spectators.

The star halfback continued to play, although relinquishing his goalkicking duties, and put Tariq Sims into a gap before the second-rower bashed his way past Kevin Locke to score in the 61st minute.

The score blew out in the 66th minute when substitute James Segeyaro pushed his way over from dummy half.

Faifai Loa was involved in the last two tries, crossing for a trademark jumping try in the 75th minute, before chipping off the ground to put Ben Jones across the line three minutes later.

Sims might have a date with the judiciary this week after being placed on report for a possible crusher tackle on Warriors' centre Krisnan Inu in the third minute.

Cowboys' coach Neil Henry said it was a "crucial" win during the busy representative period, especially after injury and suspension ruled out Antonio Winterstein, Scott Bolton, James Tamou and Glenn Hall.

"I thought it was real tough win, a gutsy win. We've had four players of our 17 go down and it was a tough performance. We always hung in," Henry said.

He said co-captain Johnathan Thurston's ankle was in ice after rolling it while reaching for his try in the 58th minute, but he had been cleared to stay on the field by the Cowboys' medical staff.

Fellow co-captain Matt Scott said he had no real concerns that the star halfback wouldn't continue to take part in the match.

"He looked alright. He was limping a bit but he didn't really look at the sidelines or anything, so usually that's a pretty good sign he's okay," Scott said.

Warriors' coach Ivan Cleary felt a penalty from the second-half kick-off was a big dent in his side's confidence and might have started their slide.

"That second half, we couldn't really build any pressure and constantly turned the ball over," he said.

"When you do that often enough with some of their key players, you're asking for trouble so it's certainly disappointing in that sense."

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