Warriors’ hopes hanging by thread

AUCKLAND: The Warriors' fairytale bid to make the NRL playoffs is hanging by the thinnest of threads, but what a way to go down.

They were beaten 2418 by the Eels on the Central Coast last night, in a fabulous and sometimes fiery contest and a quickly condemned sinbinning decision against them.

In the final analysis though, it will be bitter disappointment for the Warriors, who have been on an unlikely lateseason roll.

A gripping game was decided in the 79th minute, when Warriors centre Peta Hiku was shoved into touch while desperately trying to score in the corner.

The Warriors, with a very poor points differential, are now four points adrift of the eighthplaced Sharks, with three games remaining.

They will need to beat the Sharks, Raiders and Sea Eagles, to make the playoffs. They will also need the Sharks to lose their other two games to the Roosters and Raiders. The odds do not look great, but they are not impossible.

The Eels were given a massive legup from the match officials when Tevaga was sinbinned in the 17th minute for a punch in the tackle on his opposite, Brown.

It was at most a stiff push to the chin, a fairly everyday NRL act and, while not strictly legal, it would normally draw a penalty at most.

But after a light scuffle Tevaga was dismissed, with the Eels leading 40.

The sin binning decision was greeted with commentator derision, veteran caller Andrew Voss describing it as ‘‘the worst sinbinning I've ever seen’’.

— The New Zealand Herald