Warriors sunk by golden point

The Warriors have fallen to a Daly Cherry-Evans golden point field goal to lose 22-21 to the Manly Sea Eagles.

There was just 48 seconds left on the clock in extra time when the Sea Eagles halfback slotted over the winning kick and consigned the Warriors to their eighth straight loss, even though they were up by seven points with five minutes to go in the second half.

The Sea Eagles scored the opening try, benefiting from a 40/20 by Blake Green. From the following set, Jake Trbojevic took an inside pass close to the Warriors line and came through with enough pace to beat the defence.

In the 23rd minute Matt Wright kicked a penalty to take the score to 8-0.

Four minutes later though Warriors’ David Fusitu’a finished off a nice backline move to score in the right corner. Eight minutes before the break Fusitu’a got his second try, winning a foot race to ground the ball beyond the Sea Eagles’ tryline.

Write kicked his second penalty of the day three minutes into the second half and this was backed up by a try to Dylan Walker.

Nine minutes into the half Blake Ayshford scored for the Warriors, but it was Fusitu’a who did the hard work, catching a bomb from Shaun Johnson and then quickly passing to the centre while still in the air.

The Sea Eagles were the most dominant team for the next 20 minutes, but the Warriors defence held firm and with 10 minutes to go, the Warriors hit the front when Ken Maumalo capitalised on an overlap on the left edge to score.

Johnson landed a field goal with seven minutes to go to force the Sea Eagles to score twice. One came from a Tom Trbojevic try three minutes later and a subsequent Matt Wright conversion, then CherryEvans got the field goal and the game was squared up at 21-21.

There were no further scores, so the game went to golden point.

With 48 seconds to go and the Sea Eagles having worked their way 20m out from the Warriors’ line, Cherry-Evans bagged his second field goal, to keep his team’s hopes alive and pile further misery on the Warriors.

Sea Eagles 22 (2 David Fusitu’a, Blake Ayshford, Ken Maumalo tries; Issac Luke goal, Shaun Johnson goal, field goal). Warriors 21 (Jake Trbojevic, Tom Trbojevic, Dylan Walker tries; Matt Wright 4 goals, Daly 2 Cherry-Evans field goals). HT: 8-8