Woeful Warriors slump to six in a row
The Warriors have fallen to their sixth defeat in a row and biggest defeat of the season, going down 36-16 to the Raiders in Auckland yesterday.
There’s nothing remarkable in the Warriors losing as it has happened in 14 of their 21 games in the NRL this season and you have to go back to June 23 for their last victory.
But there was a different atmosphere among the small crowd of 10,182 for this game.
With the ownership of the Warriors in question following the news earlier in the day that Auckland businessman Paul Davys is looking to buy the club off Eric Watson, the result became a secondary factor.
At the start though the Warriors did look up for the match and they came close to scoring in the fifth minute when they had an overlap on the right edge, but Blake Ayshford’s pass to David Fusitu’a was forward.
Within a minute there was another opportunity as a grubber went through in goal to Solomone Kata, but he was unable to ground the ball and injured his shoulder in the attempt.
As has been the case so often the season, the Warriors quickly paid the price for not making the
most of chances, as straight away the Raiders broke down their left edge and Nick Cotric scored.
Kata’s injury meant there was an earlier than expected reprieve for Issac Luke, who slotted in at hooker and Nathaniel Roache moved to centre.
It didn’t have any impact in the game as Jarrod Croker picked up the Raiders’ second try in the 17th minute.
Nine minutes later, the Warriors got themselves back in contention when Fusitu’a finished off a nice move down the left-hand side.
However, it was all too easy for Blake Austin slide through the Warriors’ goal line defence seven minutes before the break and gave all the momentum back to the Raiders.
The Warriors had the better of play for the first 20 minutes of the second half and spent a fair amount of it hammering away close to the Raiders’ line.
For a while, the Raiders held strong but Roger Tuivasa-sheck snuck through a tiny gap in the 57th minute for the Warriors’ second try.
But for the second time, not long after the Warriors got themselves in the game they conceded a try, with the next one coming to centre Joey Leilua and at 14 points down with 18 minute to go, this game was looking out of reach for the Warriors.
That was confirmed as Kiwis winger Jordan Rapana and Cotric again scored late tries as once again a Warriors game came to a depressing end for their fans, even though Isaiah Papali’i’s try in the 78th minute did give the few remaining fans in the stadium something to cheer.