A Dylan Walker attempt to a late penalty objective from Shaun Johnson helped the Warriors beat the North Queensland Cowboys 22-14 at Mt Good Stadium in Auckland.
In an usually scrappy encounter in difficult situations, the house aspect made probably the most of a lopsided possession proportion, with a completion price nicely beneath what they’ve achieved throughout their begin to the 2023 NRL season.
Nevertheless, the in-form Johnson first laid on a strive for former Kangaroo Walker within the 61st minute to interrupt a 14-all impasse, then kicked a objective from in entrance, made loads tougher than it seemed as a result of a stiff northern breeze.
The house followers would have been forgiven for being sluggish to their seats after the Warriors’ poor begins this season, however they flipped the script and scored inside the first 5 minutes.
An intercept by Adam Pompey gave the Warriors nice subject place, two tackles later Dylan Walker and Tohu Harris mixed to ship Addin Fonua-Blake by means of sufficient of a spot to hold two defenders with him to attain below the posts.
The robust wind, which was on the Warriors’ again within the first half, was going to be a key issue within the recreation.
Nevertheless, the Cowboys saved issues easy to ship Murray Taulagiover within the nook with a slick end.
The Maroons mixture of Taulagi and Valentine Holmes was inflicting actual issues down the Warriors’ proper edge, with the winger solely simply denied a second strive by the bunker official after his foot grazed the touchline.
Ed Kosi completed off an amazing run by Marcelo Montoya to place the Warriors up 14-4, earlier than one other Origin consultant, Reuben Cotter, disregarded a poor sort out by Josh Curran to chop the deficit to 6 for the guests.
Curran made up for it after the break, scoring a well-worked strive off extra Johnson ability, however once more the Warriors slipped to let Holmes even it up once more nearly straight off the kickoff.
Whereas Walker’s strive ultimately settled the matter, the Warriors did lay on some spectacular protection to shut the sport out.
Specifically, one set with six minutes to go solely gave the Cowboys 20 meters and the next kick was taken on the total by Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad to set the Warriors up with the passage of play that led to Johnson’s late penalty.
In all, it wasn’t a recreation of any nice customary, nevertheless it’s unlikely the bumper crowd of slightly below 24,000 at Mt Good will care an excessive amount of.
The Cowboys poor begin to the season continues, that’s their second loss to the Warriors thus far in 2023, with some inquiries to be requested about how a staff so stacked with expertise will be propping up the NRL ladder.
