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The Warriors are confirmed into the top four after a tight 18-6 win over St George Illawarra in front of another packed house at Mt Smart Stadium.
An early salvo from Adam Pompey and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad established a lead and a late clincher from Addin Fonua-Blake – following a shocking error from Tyrell Sloan – were enough to get the points.
It was a slightly spluttering performance from the Warriors, but again, they take home the points. This is their seventh win on the spin and their 16th of the year, enough for third place with Melbourne still to play this weekend.
It came at a cost. Luke Metcalf limped out with a suspected hamstring injury which will worry coach Andrew Webster, especially given the time already missed with a similar injury this year.
They will get an immediate replacement in Te Maire Martin, who returns to competitive action in reserve grade this weekend following his long-term injury, but he will have to hit the ground running to replace the livewire five eighth.
“The boys defended unbelievably tonight, that was the best part of their game,” said the coach.
“They scored a try from a kick, not from breaking us down, and I never felt like they really looked like doing that. Top four is an unbelievable achievement for the club, the whole club should be really proud. But we go to another goal now.”
The Dragons were gritty opponents, turning away waves of attack to keep the score within touching distance. In the first half in particular, they might have rolled over, but instead kept at it and, on another day, could have taken something from the game.
Instead, they slide to a fifth defeat in a row and an eighth in nine games. Though the form is awful, the performances have steadily improved under interim coach Ryan Carr.
They have given Souths, Melbourne, Parramatta and now the Warriors a real shake in the last month – though, unfortunately, have now lost all of them.
“It’s like Groundhog Day for us at the moment,” said Carr. “We’re giving ourselves the best chance to win games and we’re finding ways to not win in key moments.”
Are you not entertained? Alright, Russell Crowe is a South Sydney man, but his famous question might go for the Warriors at the moment.
They’ve not exactly played free-flowing football all year. The first few months were purer barge and bash, with the latter part seeing a little more caution thrown to the wind, but even then, it’s largely been in good ball situations.
From their own line to the opposition’s 20m, it’s fairly prosaic stuff. That’s not a criticism, by the way: the Wahs excel in playing the game in the other team’s end, getting into position and then staying there – not to mention having enough class to get the points.
It’s been their failing against the best teams, but it has also been so hugely effective against everyone else that they’ll finish in the top four and be a handful come finals time.
These last few weeks have been strange for the Kiwis. They are now seven unbeaten, but you’d be hard pushed to say that they’ve played well in the last month at the same time.
They probably should have lost to Manly, were unimpressive against the Tigers, downright bad against a 12-man Titans and a missed conversion off losing to the Raiders. You can add tonight’s win over the Dragons to that list.
They played with their food a lot here, scoring twice in the opening quarter and then struggling badly in attack for an hour afterwards.
It was strange, really, because it never looked like they’d lose given the Dragons’ problems in attack and their own ability to play at the right end of the field.
Passes hit the deck, kicks were poor and last tackle options frequently wasted, but it also didn’t really matter that much. There was only ever going to be one winner.
Things started so well for the Dragons. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak made a dog’s dinner of the kick off, Zac Lomax nipped in and it looked like we were on for the quickest try in NRL history at about four seconds of play.
The Bunker – aka the fun police – then found the tiniest of knock ons to rob St George Illawarra of an early lead and, to be honest, it went downhill from there.
Sione Finau went off injured, Lomax went for a HIA and Dan Russell split his face open, meaning that for a limited amount of time, the bench was just one man.
In that context, getting to the break 10-0 was pretty good. Factoring in a 60/40 possession split and a 70/30 territory split, it was a minor miracle.
Carr commended their effort at half time and he was right too. They remained competitive in a game they had no right to be in.
When a try eventually came their way with 17 minutes to play, it wasn’t exactly a creative masterclass – a high kick to Lomax – but they were close enough to make it interesting.
At this time of year, with nothing to play for, it is a testament to the Dragons that they had such a red hot crack.
There were plenty of reasons for St George Illawarra to chuck it, but never came close to doing that. They didn’t win, for the same reasons they haven’t won many this year, which is a near total lack of attack.
But last time out against this opponent, they were thrashed at home and totally checked out. Now, they’ve pulled a little bit of that back.