They might be sweating on hooker Josh Hodgson's return but Canberra appear to have a handy replacement with Siliva Havili inspiring a drought-breaking 18-8 NRL win over North Queensland.
The Raiders snapped a nine-match losing streak in Townsville when Havili bulldozed his way over in the 73rd minute on Saturday night.
It marked Canberra's first win over North Queensland in Townsville since round 12, 2006.
The Raiders announced this week they hoped to welcome England international Hodgson back from a knee reconstruction in round 16.
And it seemed the scheming hooker's return couldn't come soon enough after Canberra slumped to a 2-5 record before lining up against their bogey side.
But Havili's heroics from dummy-half helped Canberra bounce back from a last-round 44-22 thrashing by South Sydney, chiming in with an outstanding defensive display that limited the star-studded Cowboys to one try on their home turf.
"It was gutsy. I am so proud of how they won tonight, off the back of an individual effort," said Raiders coach Ricky Stuart.
"The contribution of every individual effort went toward a team result."
Havili was given the green light despite referee Henry Perenara sending the decision upstairs recommending a "no try" after the ball came loose over the line.
However, replays appeared to show Havili grounding the ball on the tryline before losing possession.
It marked the sixth loss in seven games for a battling North Queensland, who have won just two matches in 2018.
"We are not far off cracking sides open but we just couldn't nail our plays," Cowboys co-captain Matt Scott said.
"And it's very hard to excuse some of the tries we conceded. They basically ran over the top of us which is hard to take."
The Cowboys threatened to maintain their hoodoo over Canberra when they regained the lead 8-6 with a 48th-minute Johnathan Thurston penalty.
But the Raiders kicked ahead when playmaker Aidan Sezer took on the line to score an individual try in the 50th minute before Havili's heroics.
North Queensland drew first blood when Gavin Cooper ran off Thurston to score in the 15th minute.
But Canberra's Josh Papalii ensured scores were locked at 6-6 by halftime when he carried three defenders over the line in the 25th minute.
