[Source: NRL]

The Cowboys rewrote the history books to record a 74-0 defeat over the Wests Tigers in front of a sell-out home crowd at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.

Six weeks on from being humbled by the Tigers 66-18 at Leichhardt Oval, the Cowboys gave the joint venture a taste of their own medicine and more, recording the biggest scoreline to nil in NRL premiership history.

Eight of Todd Payten’s men crossed in front of the Cowboys faithful in the Round 18 clinic, but five-eighth Tom Dearden and fullback Scott Drinkwater were the stars of the show, combining for three tries, seven assists and 412 run metres.

As good as the Cowboys were, the Tigers were extremely poor at times, struggling to generate anything in attack and spoiling any opportunities with cheap errors, of which they recorded 16 in total.

The Tigers were in the arm-wrestle for the first stages of the match but come the 15th minute and the home side were well on their way to a Saturday night drumming.

First it was Dearden who capitalised off an earlier break from Coen Hess. Thanks to an off the ball support play from Drinkwater, the athletic five-eighth found space and dummied through the line to score the first try for the home side.

Already the cracks were showing for Tim Sheens’ side and North Queensland crossed twice more in just six minutes, with new recruit Semi Valemei and former Tiger Luciano Leilua finding the line only moments after the kick-off. The Cowboys led 18-0 after 20 minutes.

With all the momentum behind the Cowboys and the Tigers already with 15 missed tackles to their name, Drinkwater was next to get in on the action, running in two tries of his own in the 24th and 29th minute.

Things went from bad to worse for the visitors when veteran forward Alex Twal was sent to the bin for a hip-drop tackle on Luciano Leilua and the Cowboys began scoring tries for fun with Murray Taulagi and Valentine Holmes stretching the lead out 42-0 before the break.

It was all one way traffic again in the second-half with Valemei and Holmes making it a double for the night, and Taulagi crossing for his third as the Cowboys surpassed the 60 points mark.

The Tigers mounted some pressure on their scoreline at the back end of the match but still couldn’t put a point on the board and forwards Jeremiah Nanai and Jordan Mclean rubbed salt in the wounds late in the matching, icing the record 72-0 victory with tries of their own.