“We’ve come a long way as a club”.
Warriors captain Tohu Harris summed it up for the 24,000-plus ‘Up the Wahs!’ fans that packed the Daniel Anderson Stadium in Auckland on Friday night - and the thousands more at home - that witnessed a battling 29-22 victory over the Manly Sea Eagles.
A sixth straight win guarantees the Warriors a top-eight spot and leaves them a win away from a locked-in top-four finish.
It was a game of two halves with the Warriors playing some of their best footie and then coming undone in the early part of the match, and in the second spell shutting out Manly completely, denying them a single point in a grinding match-winning performance.
After the Sea Eagles got off to a flying start, up 6-0 inside the first four minutes, Harris grabbed a bustling captain’s try a few minutes later to level the scores. Two stand-out tries to winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak - who ended the game with a hat-trick - then saw the Warriors race out to a 10-point 16-6 lead before they undid their good work, leaking three consecutive tries down their left edge to Manly winger Jason Saab to put the visitors ahead 22-16 at the break.
“The first half we didn’t defend well at all,” Warriors coach Andrew Webster said post-match.
“We had a real good talk at half-time and I heard a couple of senior players saying, ‘We’re not going to chase this game. We’re gonna grind our way to victory’.
A clearly satisfied Webster added, “We had a shut-out. So, zero points from them in the second half.”
Webster made it clear he’s not expecting perfection from his Warriors team that’s currently third on the NRL ladder behind the Broncos and Panthers, but he does want them to keep their head in the game and step up.
“[There’s] still some errors but I just want us to switch on. Like we’re not going to be perfect - but to defend your try line for long periods, like we don’t want to be there on our try line. But if we are, we need to defend it.”
Watene-Zelezniak levelled the scores 22-all shortly after half-time with his third try of the evening - and the Warriors then set about holding out a barrage of Manly attacks, including charging down an attempted field goal attempt in the 71st minute.
Barely a minute later, second-rower Marata Niukore scored a match-winning try for the Warriors from a surging downfield run to push the score out to 28-22 and the game all but beyond reach of the Sydney-siders.
Shaun Johnson made it certain the Warriors would bank the three points with a 79th-minute field goal.
Victory for the Warriors and no less importantly for the fundraising efforts in aid of former team coach Daniel Anderson, who the stadium was temporarily renamed in honour of for the game.
Warriors 29 (Dallin Watene-Zelezniak 3, Tohu Harris, Marata Niukore tries; Adam Pompey 4 cons; Shaun Johnson drop goal)
Manly Sea Eagles 22 (Jason Saab 3, Jake Arthur tries; Reuben Garrick 3 cons)
HT: 16-22
