NORTH QUEENSLAND TOYOTA COWBOYS v SYDNEY ROOSTERS NYC
5.45pm (Qld), Saturday 7 March, 1300SMILES Stadium
Tickets: ticketek.com.au
Live updates: twitter.com/nthqldcowboys
Referee: Clayton Sharpe
Sideline officials: Jack Erbert, Wyatt Raymond
Times: Gates open 5.30pm | NRL Cowboys v Roosters 8pm
COWBOYS: 1 Yamba Bowie, 2 Gideon Mosby, 3 Akeripa Tia Kilifi, 4 Conor Carey, 5 Scott Schulte, 6 Ty Carucci, 7 Cooper Bambling, 8 Viliame Kikau, 9 Brandon Smith, 10 Braden Uele, 11 Coen Hess, 12 Bill Cullen, 13 Kieran Quabba. Interchange: 14 Trey Kemp, 15 David Munro, 16 Andrew Niemoeller, 17 Jordan Kenworthy, 18 Ross Bella, 19 Kyle Laybutt.
ROOSTERS: 1 Lattrell Mitchell, 2 Johnny Tuivasa-Scheck, 3 Paul Momirovski, 4 Taane Milne, 5 Joseph Manu, 6 Jackson Hastings, 7 Zac Nicholls, 8 Richard Skelton, 9 Connor Watson, 10 Poasa Faamausili, 11 Vincent Leuluai, 12 Isaac Chrichton, 13 Nat Butcher. Interchange: 15 Nick Newman, 16 Sukamanu Raki, 17 Misieli Vaikeli, 18 Piki Rogers, 19 Ryan Turner.
FORM GUIDE
After finishing a disappointing 12th last season, the Cowboys have worked hard in the pre-season, rounding it out with an impressive victory over the Northern Pride in Cairns a fortnight ago. Saturday night’s encounter with the Roosters will be Todd Payten’s first as head coach and he believes they have the cattle to be a contender in 2015.
The Sydney Roosters in the meantime will be no pushovers, having elevated a number of players from their premiership-winning SG Ball squad from last year.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Prop Braden Uele will go up against his old side in the Tricolours and will no doubt be out to make his mark at his new club. Cowboys second-rower Cohen Hess has spent some time with the NRL squad and participated in the NRL Auckland Nines.
For the Roosters, fullback Latrell Mitchell is their danger man. He has plenty of speed and scored 16 tries in 12 matches last season, and is already being compared to South Sydney number one Greg Inglis.
