The first field goal of Blake Green’s NRL career has sunk Cronulla and capped a dramatic 19-18 win for the Warriors in Wellington.
A desperate mid-table match on a cold, wet Friday night finally swung the home team’s way when the Warriors got it right five minutes from time and converted a one-pointer, having had all sorts of problems doing the same thing in recent games.
The Sharks had a chance to level in the final play but Chad Townsend’s field goal attempt flew wide, consigning them to a fifth straight loss.
It brought relief to a Warriors side who will feel the result was just.
Led by an astonishing 300-run metres from captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, the hosts dominated for long periods but were rattled by what appeared to be poor rulings in two of Cronulla’s three tries.
The Sharks dominated early and it looked like their night as former Warrior Johnson helped forge a 12-2 lead in his first game against the club he served for 162 games across eight seasons.
The halfback sliced through to put Briton Nikora across, the beaming smile on the face of the off-season club-hopper possibly explaining the deluge of boos that preceded his successful conversion.
Another former Warriors halfback had his moment soon afterwards when Townsend crossed although it was in contentious circumstances.
Matt Moylan’s offload found a juggling Bronson Xerri who batted the ball to Townsend. Both transfers hinted at being forward but the bunker wasn’t consulted.
The Sharks barely visited the Warriors half for the next 50 minutes but all the hosts had to show for it was a slick converted try to Green and a penalty to Issac Luke.
Match officials were back in the spotlight when Sosaia Feki crossed against the run of play via what appeared a blatant forward pass from Nikora.
Nikorima responded, busting through and dragged Moylan over the line to reduce Cronulla’s lead to 18-16 and the scores were level when Andrew Fifita had a brain explosion.
The Sharks prop shoulder-charged Lachlan Burr without the ball, earning 10 minutes in the sin bin and gifting two points that set up the nail-biting finish.
Cronulla coach John Morris said sheer weight of possession told as his side made nearly 100 more tackles than the hosts and ran for 700 less metres.
He said they were their own worst enemies through ill-discipline and lazy errors in their own half.
“We beat ourselves, it’s quite clear,” Morris said.
“I think we finished with 9-10 errors for the game and the Warriors stayed in the fight longer than we did.
“They won that game with the amount of pressure they put on us … it certainly took a lot of energy out of us.”
Morris wasn’t convinced his team had the rub of the green with match officials.
He wasn’t sure the Fifita sin-binning was warranted and felt they deserved a potential match-winning penalty when Nikora was held down in a tackle in the final minute.
