 |
| Images www.photosport.nz & www.warriors.kiwi |
Both teams went back and forth with the lead and ended 28 all at the final whistle, Golden Point lasted just over a minute when Tuimoala Lolohea defused a kick and made a break and passed to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck who finished the play off under the post to give the victory to the Warriors 32-28.
The Roosters have been unlucky this season and have had a few victories in their grasp only to let it slip in the last few minutes and this game was no exception, at times it seemed that the Roosters were going to finally break their win drought but the Warriors kept themselves in the game with an improved defensive effort and some smart gameplay.
Overall the Warriors still have a lot of room for improvement but the highly touted spine is starting to gel and create opportunities for themselves, as long as they continue to take advantage of these opportunities the Warriors will continue to add wins to their ledger.
There was one call in the game that has caused a lot of comments and that was when Ryan Hoffman was pulled back when going for a loose ball over the try line, the on-field result was a penalty but fans thought a penalty try was deserved, now after watching it a few times I don’t think a penalty try was valid as you could not definitively say that Ryan would have scored the try so I was happy with the penalty.
In the days after the game Referee’s Boss Tony Archer has commented on this call and advised that the Referee’s and the Bunker made the wrong call and that the Rooster’s should have been penalised and Aidan Guerra needed to be sin-binned for his actions.
The Bunker has been under a lot of pressure and it sounds like Tony Archer is going to start standing down officials who are underperforming.
Hopefully, this means that the referee’s performance will improve but time will tell.
My player of the day goes to Tuimoala Lolohea.
Tui injected himself into this game setting up two tries , everyone is talking about the golden point matchwinner but the first try he set up for Shaun Johnson was more impressive.
The way he is playing he is screaming for a halves spot and if Jeff Robson continues his subpar performances he may very well take it from him.
His attack has always been very strong but his defensive positioning has improved drastically this season and I think he is going to only get stronger as the season continues.
My player who needs to improve was mentioned above but it goes to Jeff Robson, he continues to miss tackles and that can be tolerated if the Warriors have players around him to clean up but the facet of his game that is causing headaches is his ball handling.
As a fan of this team, it breaks my heart seeing the Warriors start a set well to have the ball fumbled by Jeff when they start to move it wide.
The pressure is on Jeff right now with Tuimoala playing out of his skin and also with Thomas Leuluai returning from injury this week.
His time in First grade could be over if there isn't some instant improvement.
This round the Warriors are bringing back Saturday night football at Mount Smart Stadium playing the Many Sea Eagles.
Manly haven’t played their best football this season but their halves pairing of Dylan Walker and Apisai Koroisau caused the Rabbitohs a lot of problems and the Warriors will need to keep them contained if they want to walk away with the victory.
I'm looking forward to this game, the atmosphere is always special at Mount Smart on a Saturday night and this game will be no different.
It will be a close game but I'm picking the Warriors to walk away with the victory here.
Talk to you all next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment