It was a clanger that summed up North Queensland’s match – and maybe even their NRL season.
Kyle Feldt had the chance to give the Cowboys a confidence boosting 8-0 lead over Sydney Roosters with a 29th minute penalty at point blank range on Thursday night.
Instead Feldt somehow hit the upright, the Roosters eventually regained possession and went on to spark a run of eight unanswered tries in the match to seal a 42-16 romp in Townsville.
The Cowboys’ plight wasn’t helped when they lost star winger Valentine Holmes (ankle) for the second half.
But North Queensland coach Paul Green said Feldt’s horror penalty attempt exposed what his team lacked most – confidence.
“That was pretty costly. That was a big momentum shift,” he said.
“When you are trying to find confidence in a young group it is things like that (that hurt).
“We needed to be more resilient at that period to get back into the game.”
The Roosters made the Cowboys pay for the gaffe, overcoming an error riddled first half to launch a blitz that included six tries in 21 minutes.
“When something goes against us as a team we need to be tougher mentally to be able to cope with that and get back into the game,” Green said.
“One try is quickly becoming two and then three.
“There is quite a few of us clocking off at times particularly when we get under pressure.
“It’s just a bit of confidence, trusting in each other and trusting in the system.”
Asked how his team could regain confidence after their fifth loss in six games, Green said: “You can’t talk about it, you’ve got to do it.
“So we have to work hard, be accountable, just fight a bit harder for each other when we are under a bit of pressure.”
Green said players could also follow the lead of prop Josh McGuire who ran 199m, almost matching workaholic lock Jason Taumalolo (227m).
Green hinted at team changes for next week’s clash with Penrith.
“There’s plenty of reasons for me to make changes in the team – we will just leave it at that for now,” he said.
He wasn’t sure whether Holmes would be among those with Cowboys staff yet to assess his troublesome ankle.
Holmes looked in trouble in the first half in his second game back from an ankle injury that had sidelined him for a fortnight.
“It’s too early to say. He got jammed up in a tackle. He had a sore ankle to start with (but) he got passed last week to play and pulled up good,” he said.