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The Warriors have secured their spot in the top four thanks to a 29-22 win over Manly in Auckland, with a late Marata Niukore try proving the difference in a pulsating contest.
In front of a packed crowd at Mt Smart – rechristened Daniel Anderson Stadium for the night in honour of their former coach – the Kiwis were given a real game by Manly, who are now finished for the year.
The game turned on a crucial Bunker decision with less than ten to play. Reuben Garrick was caught in midair by Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad after a Daly Cherry-Evans field goal attempt had been charged down, but it was ruled fair.
By the letter of the law, that was true: as it was a bouncing ball, not a kick, the midair collision rules do not apply. The contact could well have been deemed dangerous anyway, but wasn’t.
What could have been an easy penalty goal became a match-sealing try as the Warriors went up the field and Niukore gave them the lead. Shaun Johnson potted a late field goal to make it secure.
“It was ridiculous,” said Anthony Seibold of the decision. “That’s a penalty every day of the week.
“The rule said it’s not because the ball bounced, but how many times do we pull tackles up for a slight crusher and give a penalty, someone slipping up from chest to jaw and there’s a penalty. Fair dinkum, let’s be serious. We (could have) gone up two points with six to go.
“I’ll get a phone call from (referees coach) Dave Farleigh or somebody tomorrow from the NRL and they’ll apologise or say ‘look, that’s the correct decision’ or it wasn’t a dangerous tackle.
“It was a dangerous tackle. He’s injured. He couldn’t finish the game. It’s our season on the line so I am pissed off about it.”
Manly threw the kitchen sink at Penrith last week with every play they could think of, and while today was a little more restrained than that, they showed similar endeavour.
Pre-match, the probability had the Sea Eagles at a 2% chance of making the eight but they played very much like a team that thought they could make it.
They trusted their speed out wide and were rewarded with a hat trick for Jason Saab. The problem was that Dallin Watene-Zelezniak got three too.
Though their season ended, they went out on their shield.
The Warriors, on an emotional night, got another close result at home. They have been winning while below their best of late, but were pushed all the way tonight and had the answers. Anyone who travels to Auckland in the Finals will know that they are in for a rough ride.
This Warriors side have a lot of ways to score, but there’s two that come off an awful lot of the time. Notably, there’s the move that gets Watene-Zelezniak in at the corner and the play that, despite bevvies of defenders, continues to get front-rowers over close to the posts.
Both moves have the same genesis: straightening of the attack by the hooker, men in motion and ball-carriers taking it close to the line.
DWZ gets the footy when they run through the whole play, with his challenge to win a footrace to the corner with the scramble. Invariably he does.
The threat of that move at the wing creates the options inside, because defences overcompensate, prematurely shifting wide and creating the angle inside that the Warriors can exploit either with a crash line or, as Harris did tonight, by going themselves.
Manly, to their credit, came with a plan to counteract this. They were caught out by Watene-Zelezniak and Harris – and didn’t cover themselves in glory for DWZ’s second, right down the guts – but they were happy to force the Warriors wide and back their own speed to win that race to the corner.
It wasn’t their greatest idea. Though Morgan Harper did manage to bundle Marcelo Montoya into touch, repeatedly offering the same space to DWZ only ends one way at the moment.
Prior to the match, Anthony Seibold told Fox League that his team would prioritise speed over size – largely because, with their injury list in the middle, they didn’t really have any big men to call on.
It wasn’t a terrible plan: when they got into good ball, there was no doubt that they were going to play their football.
Saab scored one that DWZ would have been proud of, setting a course for the corner after some excellent hands and grabbed another from an exceptional Reuben Garrick flick pass.
The third was a little more fortunate, with a Daly Cherry-Evans double bouncer that was a mile forward and bounced twice before the winger picked it up for his hat trick.
All three occurred early in the tackle count, with Manly immediately choosing to play their footy and not waste time on set up plays.
There’s been plenty of indication that this might be how it goes under Seibold in 2024. The addition of Arthur – who also scored – in the halves gave a glimpse of what Luke Brooks might do, with a much straighter style of play with a far greater run threat.
Schuster, despite being the size of a backrower, averages just four runs per game. He had two possessions, no runs, made an error and got yanked with 25 to play tonight.
In the end, the attack failed them in the second half, with no points scored after half time. That, in fairness, was in no small part because of the excellent work from the Warriors without the ball.