Warriors wonders in the finish
The Warriors might not be the best team in the NRL, but they’re surely the club that’s producing the best finishes.
Following on from their win over the Cronulla Sharks in the previous round, when Shaun Johnson scored one of the best solo tries of the season, they did it again against the Eels in Parramatta on Saturday, with Bodene Thompson going in for a try in extra time to secure a 17-13 win.
These two valuable away wins probably didn’t do much good for the blood pressure of Warriors coach Andrew McFadden, but they demonstrated a commitment and fighting spirit that hasn’t always been there with the club.
‘‘At the end of the year no one is going to remember how we won these games, it’s just two points on the ladder from each of them,’’ Warriors wing Jonathan Wright said.
‘‘We’ll keep chipping away, but it’s good to get these two wins going into the bye.
‘‘This was a block of games we targeted and now we’ll just recuperate, enjoy the week off and then prepare for our next home game, against the Knights.’’
The man of the moment in Parramatta was one of the Warriors’ unsung heroes of the season.
Thompson was recruited from the Tigers at the end of last year and has quietly gone about his business tidying up that right edge. He’s also a strong ball runner and is showing the form that could get him back in the Kiwis squad for the tour to England at the end of the season.
‘‘He’s been awesome all year,’’ said Wright, who’s also on the right edge.
‘‘He does a lot of work on defence, but his attack is improving each week, with his carries and getting to the line and against the Eels it was one of his big efforts that won us the game.
‘‘Each week he’s improving and getting better, he’s a quality player to have in our side.’’
After tries to Shaun Johnson and Solomone Kata in the first half to give the Warriors a 12-0 lead at the break, it was a concern that they let the Eels back into the game, with Anthony Watmough, Semi Radradra and Ryan Morgan all scoring tries.
Chad Townsend and Luke Kelly kicked field goals late in the second half to send the game into extra time and five minutes into that Thompson got the try.
It was a dramatic finish, but the Warriors shouldn’t really have got themselves into a position of needing to win like that after dominating the first half against a particularly average outfit.
‘‘We’ll enjoy wins like this, but obviously we’ll look at the areas where we struggled or didn’t hit the mark,’’ Wright said.
‘‘We’ve got a week off now where we can work towards that, but we should still enjoy this win because we deserved it.’’
But the win did come at a cost, hooker Thomas Leuluai twisted his knee running with the ball. He will have a scan to assess the damage, but McFadden fears it could be season over for him.
‘‘I think it’s the worst one. It might be ACL, but we’ll have to get it confirmed,’’ McFadden said.
‘‘It’s one of those innocuous ones and they usually turn out to be the worst case.’’
If Leuluai is out for the rest of the year, veteran Nathan Friend will be starting games and Siliva Havili, who was supposed to be the Warriors’ next big thing a year ago but has constantly been overlooked by McFadden, should see some game time.
With Issac Luke coming next year, this could be Havili’s last chance to show he’s up to playing in the NRL.