I ' d wager Merkel is both talented and ambitious , simply not charismatic . Charisma often comes with other ' strong ' traits but I wouldn ' t rule out talented bland people as nonexistent . <| sep |> tSCQGXDqdzgThe merciless North Queensland Cowboys have made history and put the Wests Tigers to the sword , racking up a 646 annihilation in front of 12 , 317 fans at 1300 SMILES Stadium on Saturday night . It is the biggest win in the almost 20 year history of the Cowboys , beating the previous record , a 608 win over the Rabbitohs in 2003 . Winding up toward September , the Cowboys never let the foot off the pedal . While the Tigers managed just the one try , North Queensland did not go ten minutes without a score all night . It was effectively over when the home side held a 320 buffer just half an hour in , but the flame didn ' t flicker during the 15 minute break in the sheds . The already underfire visitors were met with a blaze coming out of the sheds the first bit of pain selfinflicted . In a regulation hitup , James Gavet ' s boot found the tender area of an already hurting Robbie Farah , forcing play to stop momentarily , and if that didn ' t have Potter enquiring about a mercy clause , the next play may have . Fullback Michael Morgan threw a precise cutout ball to Antonio Winterstein who beat two defenders to register his first of the night . Thurston joined the party , channelling the firsthalf magic shown by halves partner Robert Lui to find Morgan with an inside ball for his first of the night , passing the 40 point mark in the 51 st minute . Just before the hour mark , Aaron Woods showed just why he was New South Wales ' leading prop this year , brushing off two Cowboys to dunk it home under the sticks for their first points of the night . But the pain returned immediately when Curtis Sironen , playing in the halves , knocked on off the restart . That led to Moga ' s first of the night off another perfect ball from Lui . The restart was kicked out on the full and the Cowboys were in yet again , bringing up the half century when Lui fed bigbodied centre Kane Linnett on a straight run . The points kept coming courtesy of Linnet , Taumalolo and Moga again , with scores finishing at 646 . Viewers needed all of a minute to see how this one was going to play out . Michael Morgan signified the start of proceedings with a 59 metre kick that had fullback Mitchell Moses in two minds and before he knew it , the ball was at his feet and bouncing dead . Robert Lui forced the game ' s second dropout on the ensuing possession , and that ' s when the flood of points began . Tryscoring machine Matthew Wright , playing outside of Tautau Moga in attack , just had to wait his turn after some hotpotato footy through the hands of Thurston and Lui created the overlap . The direction of both team ' s seasons was exemplified in just the seventh minute by fullback Mitchell Moses ' attempt at a rightside spread of their own when he threw a conventional pass straight over the sideline , giving the Cowboys more impetus to score points . They didn ' t on that possession , but the Tigers ' custodian gave them a second crack just three minutes later , delivering a lessthanaccommodating ball to returning centre Chris Lawrence who put it down . After clearing out the right side , Lui threw a long ball to Moga who turned a threeontwo disadvantage into an attacking opportunity , outrunning a flatfooted edge defence to draw Wright for his second of the night . It took just three further minutes for Wright to outleap 5 ' 10 Kurtis Rowe and register his hattrick off a deft Thurston chip . After two tough conversions were waved away , Thurston slotted the easier shot . Then it was Lui ' s turn . Channelling halves partner Thurston , the North Queensland playmaker engaged the Tigers ' line just enough before delaying a pass to a charging Michael Morgan straight through a hole , who then found Tariq Sims who fell over the line under the sticks .