Warriors to face Panthers in playoffs
At a glance
The Warriors will cross the Tasman to face the Penrith Panthers in a sudden-death NRL playoff after finishing the regular season in eighth place.
When, where and who the Warriors would play in the first week of the finals hinged on the result and the amount of points scored in the final match of round 25 between the Brisbane Broncos and Manly Sea Eagles in Brisbane yesterday.
Early in the second half, the Broncos seemed certain to win by a margin of more than 32 points – enough to move up to fifth place on the ladder and book a home match against the Warriors in the first week of the playoffs.
However, a disallowed try in the final 90 seconds kept the winning margin to just 32 points, which meant Penrith finished fifth and earned the right to host the eighth-placed Warriors in western Sydney.
The Broncos
Eagles 48-16. beat the Sea
The Broncos’ victory took them from eighth to sixth spot by way of points differential, and they will host the seventh-placed Dragons next weekend.
The Warriors have a one-win, one-loss record against the Panthers so far in the 2018 season but only this weekend’s suddendeath playoff will be remembered.
Remarkably, four teams (Panthers, Dragons, Broncos and Warriors) all finished on 32 points and were separated only by points for and against.
The Roosters won the minor premiership with just one extra win. They took out the top spot on points differential ahead of the Storm, Rabbitohs and Sharks who also finished on 34 points. The Roosters host the Sharks and the Storm host the Rabbitohs next weekend.
A 20-16 win over a Canberra on Friday night gave the Warriors their 15th win of the season – more than double the seven victories they managed in 2017.
It was a morale-boosting victory – but had they been beaten they still would have finished in eighth place on the ladder.
The clash against Penrith will be the first finals appearance for the Warriors in seven years.
In 2011, the Auckland-based club went all the way to the grand final when they went down to Manly 24-10.
But for the next six seasons, the Warriors were stuck firmly in the bottom half of the competition.
The Warriors’ hopes of a home match in the first week of the finals were dashed on Saturday evening when the St George Illawarra Dragons scored a 24-14 win over the Knights. They were already on life support late on Friday night when the Penrith Panthers upset the Melbourne Storm 22-16.
The Warriors, who are almost certain to welcome back fiveeighth Blake Green – after two weeks out with a calf injury, will have to sweat on the fitness of Simon Mannering who suffered a recurrence of a sternum injury in his 300th match for the club.
Captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was also limping with an ankle complaint late in the game but appeared to recover by fulltime.