North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Heartbreak again for Warriors
With four weeks of the Fox Memorial left before the finals series Northcote Tigers’ future in the first division is on the line. Sitting on the bottom of the table their chances of survival are slim but not altogether hopeless.
However they look like letting things slip away after another big loss last weekend when this time they went scoreless against Mt Albert in a 66-0 drubbing.
Thankfully for the Tigers, Otahuhu are still fighting for their survival also and like the Tigers have had only two wins all season. So their match next weekend will most likely determine the future for those two sides.
In the meantime the Tigers play Marist on Saturday at Birkenhead. They’ll have to improve out of sight from their last two matches if they want to test Marist who presently sit in fifth place and who are still looking to get up to a play-off spot.
In the Sharman Cup Glenfield would have been happy to come away from Manurewa with a 24 all draw while East Coast Bays continued their slippery slide with another loss, this time going down to Otara 32-20. And Hibiscus Coast Raiders resurgence continued with a big 60-12 thumping of New Lynn and now sit in forth spot on the table.
On Saturday the Hibiscus Coast Raiders host Bays and should clean up while Glenfield will be at Sunnynook to take on Papatoetoe who have three more competition points than the Greyhounds but a good contest is promised.
The Warriors suffered another defeat in Perth and their third golden point extra time game of the year. It must be really disappointing to have to travel all the way to Perth and play in such atrocious conditions with unrelenting rain throughout the game.
Suffering from a poor start the Warriors had the better of the remaining three quarters of the match but couldn’t find that extra one point to take the game. The good news in the Warriors camp comes from the reserve side competing in the Intrust Super Premiership where they presently lie in third place. Last week they scored a narrow 24-22 win over Manly at Brookvale Oval while this week they travel to Canberra to take on the Mounties, the no. 1 side.
The Warriors also take on Canberra on Saturday where a win is essential but maybe a little too hard to come by against a team that’s playing above themselves this year .