NRL: Cowboys coach Payten rues slow start in Sharks loss

North Queensland Cowboys coach, Todd Payten has declared that his side have “plenty to work on” after losing 26-18 to the Cronulla Sharks in the first NRL semi-final on Friday night in Sydney.

“But you can’t give away starts like that – not in the big games,” Payten said in his post-match press conference at Allianz Stadium

“There’s plenty to work on.”

Cronulla – who were on a seven-match losing streak in NRL finals and lost 37-10 to the Melbourne Storm last week – got off to a brilliant start on Friday night.

The home side ran in four unanswered tries in the first half, taking a commanding 24-0 lead into half time.

NRL betting sites had the match scaled $1.60 to $2.40 in favour of the Sharks pre-match, yet the contest looked all but over after 40 minutes.

The Cowboys did fight back in the second half, scoring three tries to none and pegging the Sharks’ lead back to just eight points.

However, it was too little, too late, with Peyton ruing his team’s inconsistency.

“Obviously we have showed what we’ve got in us at different periods,” he said.

“We show some flashiness, but we’ve got to bite down on the mouthguard a little harder in the tough parts of the game for longer periods.

“We’ve got some ability, but you can’t pick and choose when you’re doing the hard stuff of the game.

“I just thought our football attack put too much pressure on our defence… Not calm enough in those moments.

“Showed a bit of fight and spirit in that second half.

“Probably a couple of options if they were different, it might have been a different story, but the way we started in that first half was too costly.”

Cronulla now move through to the preliminary finals, where they will face the Penrith Panthers next weekend.

The victory shifts their odds to win the grand final from $17 earlier in the week through to $10 with top sports bookmakers ahead of their clash with Penrith.

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