Cowboys corralled and NRL forced to apologise Reasons to be upset: Cowboys players after the whistle finally blew. For a second consecutive season, NRL officials have been forced to apologise to the Cowboys for an error that ended their season. Exactly 12 months to the day that video referees Steve Clarke and Paul Simpkins missed a knock on by Kieran Foran in the lead up to a Jorge Taufua try during Manly's 22-12 elimination of North Queensland last year, Sharks winger Beau Ryan scored on the seventh tackle. Crunch time: Sharks winger Beau Ryan runs into the teeth of the North Queensland defence. With Cronulla winning 20-18, the incident left a bitter taste in the mouths of Cowboys players and officials who feel they were again "robbed" of any chance of an inaugaral premiership win. The error, which revived memories of the infamous seventh-tackle controversies during the 1978 finals series, occurred after referees Matt Cecchin and Henry Perenara appeared to lose count as Cronulla went the length of the field on the set of tackles before Ryan's eighth-minute try. There were suggestions that North Queensland halfback Robert Lui had dropped the ball before getting a boot to it but match officials did not signal zero tackle when Andrew Fifita fielded the kick. Instead, they correctly called the second tackle but did not call the third or fourth tackle. Cechin then called "fourth" as Luke Lewis played the ball on what should have been the fifth tackle and Sam Tagataese burst through the middle of the ruck before being tackled short of the line. The Cowboys should have received possession from a change over but instead Cronulla received one more tackle and five-eighth Todd Carney passed the ball to centre Ben Pomeroy who put Ryan over with a flick pass. NRL referees boss Daniel Anderson conceded to the game's broadcasters at half-time that the match officials had made an error, saying "It appears that is correct." NRL head of football Todd Greenberg announced after the match that an inquiry would be held. "We do not want to see mistakes like this made in any match, especially a finals game, and we will be meeting with Daniel Anderson and the match officials to examine just how this happened," Greenberg said. What is most concerning is that there are checks and balances across the entire squad to safeguard against the referees making such a mistake. We don't want this happening again. Ryan said he wasn't aware of the allegations until full-time. "Now I do but hopefully nothing comes off it," he said. With his tenure in North Queensland ending with the loss, Cowboys coach Neil Henry said before the match: "You just want a fair go - that's all you want." Henry and skipper Johnathan Thurston had fumed at the post match press conference after last year's shattering finals exit when the video referees had watched more than 20 replays before wrongly ruling that Foran had not touched the ball as he leapt for a kick in the lead up to Taufua's try. Thurston said the Cowboys had been "robbed" and Henry accused the match officials of being "incompetent." Henry left no doubt that the incident still burned deep in North Queensland at a press conference in Townsville last week. "Every coach just wants the correct decisions and to get things right, and that's what we're expecting," Henry told a press conference. It'd be good if we don't go through a few of those things like last year, but you make your own luck too. It's a tough environment down there but we've been able to get some success in Sydney lately, so it's not like we're going down there without winning games.