Warriors win a much-needed boost
Warriors prop Jacob Lillyman has frontrow tickets to the Shaun Johnson-benji Marshall showdown this Friday night and yesterday was not playing down how exciting it could be.
The Warriors banked their fifth win from 10 games in the NRL this season when they beat the Roosters 30-26 on Saturday night.
Yet again the victory was fuelled by a couple of bits of raw athleticism from talented halfback Shaun Johnson.
The first came in the 47th minute when he received the ball from a standing start 15 metres out from the Roosters tryline with nothing on.
He proceeded to run across field before delivering a mesmerising right-foot step to leave the Roosters’ defenders clutching at thin air as he scooted around under the posts.
His second freakish act come in the 61st minute when he latched on to a cross-kick from his halves partner, James Maloney. Johnson showcased some of the skills which previously had him representing New Zealand at Aussie Rules when, at 1.79m tall, he outleapt Roosters centre Shaun Kenny-dowell, who is 1.94m tall, to pluck the ball out of the air and score.
There are few in the game with the natural ability of Johnson; as far as New Zealanders go, the other person with those sort of skills is West Tigers playmaker Benji Marshall.
Lillyman knows that on Friday night in Sydney, Johnson’s matchup with Marshall will create plenty of talk.
‘‘It will certainly be an entertaining one. Two freakishly talented players going head-to-head, and you know I think Benji is a bit of an idol for Shauny.
‘‘I think Shauny has watched a lot of him and developed his own game watching Benji. It’s certainly going to be a bit of the master taking on the apprentice and it’s certainly going to be an exciting contest,’’ Lillyman said.
Having a Shaun Johnson-type player in your side can be the difference between the so-so teams and the very good teams, which showed on Saturday night. The Queensland State-of Origin representative knows too well how big those game-breaking plays can be for a team. ‘‘I’ve played with a couple of special players like that – namely (Jonathan) Thurston and Matty Bowen – and it’s their ability to pull a team out of trouble when it’s tight, and when the game’s on the line that ability to pull out that special play or plays.’’
I’m pleased for coach Brian Mcclennan that the Warriors have put together a couple of big wins in the National Rugby League. After battling past the formidable Brisbane Broncos 30-20 the previous week, the Warriors won a bruising encounter with the Sydney Roosters 30-26 at the weekend and have dragged themselves into the top eight on the NRL points table.
I thought the Warriors would go well with Mcclennan in charge, but you never know. It’s a tough competition with lots of quality teams.
Mcclennan must have one of the best CVS of any New Zealand sports coach.
Bluey, as he’s known, was a good player, a stand-off who captained Auckland to a famous win over Britain in 1994.
He came from good rugby league stock – his father, Mike, was a Kiwi in 1971 and later developed into a leading coach.
Once Mcclennan the younger took to coaching in the mid-1990s, he hardly put a foot wrong.
Guiding third division Auckland side Hibiscus Coast Raiders, he had repeated success until they were invited to be part of the national Bartercard Cup.
Mcclennan then coached the Raiders and later Mt Albert Lions to Bartercard Cup championships.
He became Australian Daniel Anderson’s assistant with the Kiwis. Anderson wasn’t really a good fit with the New Zealand team and things looked up when he departed and was replaced by Mcclennan in 2005. There was a bit of criticism initially that Mcclennan lacked experience in major Australian or English competitions, but that talk soon died away.
Under Mcclennan, the Kiwis enjoyed possibly their greatest day, when they walloped Australia 24-0 at Leeds to win the 2005 Tri-nations series. It was the Kiwis’ biggest win over the Kangaroos and Australia failed to score a point in a test for the first time in 20 years.
However, it wasn’t long before Mcclennan fell victim to some shameless New Zealand Rugby League board politics, and he was sent packing in 2007, replaced by Gary Kemble, a good player but an inadequate coach.
Mcclennan was one of the subjects of a book I wrote called Winning Ways, about champion coaches. Just as it was published, he got the axe and I remember a conversation with him shortly after, in which he expressed his disappointment at what had happened.
He said he was determined to prove the detractors wrong by doing a good job for the Leeds Rhinos, where he was heading, and that he’d be back.
Mcclennan has been as good as his word. He coached Leeds to Super League grand final victories over St Helens in 2008 and 2009. In addition, Leeds won the 2008 world club challenge, beating the Melbourne Storm 11-4.
Once Mcclennan returned to New Zealand in 2010, it was obvious he was the right man to replace the departing Ivan Cleary at the Warriors.
I’m not surprised the Warriors players have related well to Mcclennan. He’s very down-to-earth, appeals to values such as pride and courage and gives his teams enough technical advice, but not too much. Though he’s 50 now, he is very much on his players’ wavelength.