Shaun Johnson has kicked two field goals in the last three minutes to allow the Warriors to snatch an incredible 20-19 victory over Canberra at GIO Stadium.
The Warriors trailed for the entire match and were down 19-12 when Isaac Luke scored with four minutes to go to make it 19-18. Johnson then stepped up as the hero, calmly potting one pointers at the end of two restart sets.
For the first time in the Warriors’ 24-year history, they’ve won three games in a row to start the season.
For the Raiders, it’s their third heartbreaking loss in a row. Amazingly, in the first three rounds of the competition, they have lost their three matches by a combined total of just five points.
Canberra capitalised on a glut of early possession today to head into the sheds leading 13-6 at half-time.
They received the first six penalties of the match and scored both their tries early in the first half, after Warriors’ prop Adam Blair was sin binned for a late shot on Raiders’ five-eighth Aidan Sezer.
Hooker Siliva Havili barged his way over from dummy half in the 9th minute for the Raiders’ first try.
They scored again in the restart set after Joey Leilua laid the groundwork by busting the Warriors’ defence early in the count. Second-rower Elliot Whitehead scored on the next play with the Raiders spinning the ball to exploit the scrambling Warriors’ defence.
The Warriors hit back though five minutes later in their first real attacking opportunity for the half. They put the ball through the hands on the right edge before centre Peta Hiku broke through the line to score.
At 12-6 after 16 minutes, it looked like it was going to become a high-scoring first half, but both sides scrambled in defence to keep their lines intact for the rest of the half.
Raiders’ halfback Sam Williams potted a field goal just before half-time to give the Raiders a 7-point lead.
Canberra extended that lead early in the second half when they ran the short side and winger Nick Cotric barged his way over in the corner, despite the attention of several Warriors’ defenders.
Croker missed the conversion from out wide but added a penalty soon after to give the Raiders a 13-point buffer at 19-6.
Tohu Harris helped the Warriors get back in the match in the 59th minute with an individual effort to score on the right edge. Johnson’s conversion made it 19-12.
The game then settled into an end-to-end arm wrestle, before Luke’s late try and Johnson’s double field goal heroics snatched the win for the Warriors.
New Zealand Warriors 20
Canberra Raiders 19
MrJSquishy
Roar Pro
For me, the telling point in the Mbye try (to suggest it was a try) is that Maloney attempted to tackle him. Anyone who has ever seen Maloney play would know that if he thought he had been obstructed, he would've stopped chasing and thrown his arms in the air. He must have felt that the contact was so minimal that he could continue to defend. Therefore, try. Personally, I haven't seen any calls this year that I think are howlers. Aside from the play the ball area still being a lottery!
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
Are the bikies any good at footy?
SAVAGE
Guest
Exactly.
Scar82
Guest
Ricky made massive changes and rotations in 2016 hence got the best out of his players. He needs to start doing it again. Croker, Bateman, papalii and Sam Williams. They need to be dropped and play abit of Mounties. They need 2 hookers Garvey needs to play. Defence in the middle needs to work.Paulo and Boyd need to start. They need the ball to go to rapana and leiluA. They were tearing them apart yesterday.
Gary Harvey
Guest
Paulo has a few bikie mates in Sydney who should be able to help out with the angry pills too
Gary Harvey
Guest
Raiders were gassed partly because Stuart is clueless as to how to use the interchange bench. Brett White as defensive coach is also not looking like a master-stroke. Stuart has to start dropping players/trying different things. Hingano? Oldfield? Murcie? Garvey? Get Croker onto the wing/out of the team. His confidence is shattered and he couldn't tackle Tyrion from Game of Thrones at the moment. Bateman has to go too. Dude tries hard but there has never been a player who has made less post-contact meters. Get the whole team to see a shrink too, those demons that descend on the team with 10 to play are getting out of control. Got to fire up a few of the big boys too, Papili and Paulo. Get them on the angry pills if necessary.
Albo
Guest
Spot on Nat ! They are either not fit enough to keep up under pressure or they are missing the attitude and commitment to win when it is tough. I could not believe how poorly they defended over the last 5 minutes of that match when a win was on the line. As for the Warriors, they have got both their fitness and attitude greatly improved greatly over previous years and are rightly reaping the rewards. Whether they can maintain it is still the query.
DP Schaefer
Guest
Sham, very good comment. The outcome of accepting mediocrity. Have a good look at the ironic tale of two coaches - 2017. Mary at Dragons accepted mediocrity and consequently they folded towards the end. He wouldn't drop players who were not performing and a standard (of mediocrity) was accepted. Bennett at the Broncos axed Hunt quickly when his standard was falling. End result, Broncos went on into the 8 and Hunt to SOO and World Cup.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
Canberra are a very dumb, unfit, poorly coached and poorly led team. Blind Freddy could see that Shaun Johnson was going to pot both of those field goals but there was no defensive strategy put in place or desperation used to stop him.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
Share your pain sham. All the Raiders needed to do was muscle up in defence as a group and deny the Warriors that momentum in the last 5 minutes and they would have won. But no one was marshalling the troops or setting the example. As much as it hurts me to say it Jarod Croker is not a captain. His flimsy reads in defence and the manner in which he gets steam rolled sets a poor example to the others. His poor defence cost the Raiders two tries yesterday. I'd be assigning Sia Soliola as the captain until Hodgson returns. And I agree completely that the decision to put Sezer to dummy half after 20 minutes is ridiculous. He looked really energetic at 5/8 and Havilli was doing well at hooker and then Havilli goes off never to return. Craig Garvey was really good for the Mounties in the first two rounds - he needs to be the person that comes on as the interchange for Havilli and Sezer needs to stay at 5/8. This leaves a choice between Blake Austin and Sam Williams and I think Blake really needs to be given a stint in the Mounties. Ricky also needs to work out what he is doing with his bench. Liam Knight had about a 10 minute stint, Havilli played for 20 minutes and didn't return, and Boyd had a break for about 40-50 minutes. The team looked gassed in the last 5 minutes so his rotations are obviously not working. I worry about the fitness of the Raiders. They just didn't have any energy in that last 5 minutes. There is no line speed in defence and some like Josh Papalii just seem to be jogging around.
AJL.
Roar Pro
The image Warren Smith tweeted from the first Warriors FG is absolutely damning. Only one marker, who isn't chasing. The idea that they Warriors might want to kick a FG literally did not occur to them.
AJL.
Roar Pro
The irony is that Corvo is a Canberra boy.
Nat
Roar Guru
Ideally I agree with that although not all obstructions are goal line based. When a player actively runs behind a player, he falls to the deck as not to be seen to gain advantage - they know they done wrong. Using the Bunker for receiving the ball on the inside shoulder (just) where there is no imposition is too pedantic.
Emcie
Roar Guru
That's pretty much it, if the defender was genuinly obstructed, rule obstruction. If the defender makes no attempt to get to the player after a possible obstruction he takes himself out of the equation. There's been far too much of a focus on taking any judgement calls away from the Bunker and its taking the game backwards
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
Blame the refs all you want but they didn’t let in 3 soft trys and allow the warriors to march up the field in 2 almost identicle sets and fail to put pressure on Johnson for the game winning and game tying field goals.
kk
Guest
Pleasing to see the Warriors on a roll which is great for Rugby League. Ricky, get yourself an Alex Corvo. Fat forwards fade faster than fit ones. Adam Blair needs help. He hands easy metres and points to the opposition almost every time he plays.
souvalis
Guest
On paper and finally on ground the best spine in the NRL...RTS is proving an outstanding model to the other players..
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
I'd say the obstruction guidelines should be as follows: a) Was the defender genuinely stopped from making a tackle? If so, no try. b) Did the defender make a genuine attempt to evade the 'impeding' player, or did the defender 'seek out' or over-react to the impeding player so as to simulate obstruction? If so, try, and send the defender to the sin bin for ten minutes. Diving / simulation would be the biggest blight on the game if b) is not enforced. If Maloney had 'dived' on Friday, that would have been cheating, plain and simple. In applying all of the above, referees are going to have to make a judgment call based on common sense and feel for the game, not robotic guidelines.
Nat
Roar Guru
I know it gets cold in Canberra but they are going to maintain the bulk the Raiders forwards have to be fit. Obviously they're not even close and the Warriors are, hence their energy to finish that game. #refsfault, not even close, he an argue the idiosyncrasies of the obstruction rule but that's a no try every day but again, I suspect Ricky is just taking heat and using up PC time away from the big issue/s. Hats off to the Warriors though, strong charges, the offloads, support play got them back into the game and on for the win. Next few weeks will be a better litmus test though.
souvalis
Guest
I’m supposing that try Ricky’s fuming about was primarily disallowed because of decoy runner (Bateman) stopping in the defensive line and not running through it..amazed that that hasn’t been coached out of ALL players...the Raiders are the new Warriors,fightless..