NRL: What we learnt as NZ Warriors overwhelmed Cronulla Sharks
Photo:
DAN HIMBRECHTS/AAP
Despite their 9-3 record through the opening half of the NRL season, NZ Warriors had not exactly dominated opponents.
Resilience had become their trademark, with many of their successes built on dramatic late-game feats or gritty defence to hold charging opponents at bay. Their points differential had been in the negative through most of the campaign and sat at just plus-5 entering their contest against Cronulla Sharks.
They had
lost co-captain Mitch Barnett for the season
, veteran second-rower Kurt Capewell was covering at centre and they lost star hooker Wayde Egan to a hip complaint before kickoff.
At Shark Park, the Warriors finally took their game to another level that must now have the competition on warning, outscoring their opponents 28-0 after halftime.
Here are a few takeaways from their
breakout 40-10 victory
.
Already reeling from the lose of Barnett for the season, the Warriors also had to deal with Egan's late withdrawal.
While Barnett is a big loss, Egan is arguably a bigger one - and especially against the Sharks.
After 13 rounds, he led the competition in dummy half runs and tackles, heading off Cronulla counterpart Blayke Brailey in both categories.
His grip on the Warriors No.9 jersey is absolutely ironclad. Replacement Sam Healey was unproven, after logging 14 minutes off the bench in his NRL debut against North Queensland Cowboys last month.
Jackson Ford reverted back to his favoured interchange role.
Photo:
David Neilson/Photosport
The other change saw Marata Niukore shifted from second row to prop, with Jackson Ford -
initially handed Barnett's No.10 jersey
- slipping back to an interchange role he has made his own this season and Jacob Laban promoted into the starting second row.
This was an entirely predictable change, probably inevitable.
Healey's elevation into the gameday squad completed his journey to the top flight, after leaving the Sharks to search for a first-grade opportunity.
Dad Mitch played 222 games for Cronulla from 1989-2000, so gaining his first start at Shark Park would have been an emotional moment for Sam.
He played 47 minutes, running eight times for 71 metres and making 27 tackles, without looking out of place.
Brailey went the distance for the Sharks, making a game-high 53 tackles in his 150th NRL outing.
The other one that got away from the 'Shire' was Warriors halfback Luke Metcalf, who inherited the No.7 jersey from Shaun Johnson at the start of the season and has made every post a winner since, leading the Dally M standings when they went behind closed doors last week.
He had seven appearances for Cronulla, but found his career path blocked by the arrival of Nico Hynes from Melbourne Storm, and has instead found a home at Mt Smart.
Metcalf outplayed his much-vaunted rival, kicking 6/8 off the tee, making a linebreak and providing two try assists, while likely putting some ground on Sharks fullback Will Kennedy, one of his closest Dally M rivals.
Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated head-to-head match-up of the night saw former Warriors prop Addin Fonua-Blake take on the man that replaced him at the club - James Fisher-Harris.
Fonua-Blake was back-to-back Dally M Prop of the Year during his last two years in Auckland and is compiling a similar case this season, leading the league in metres after contact.
Inspirational Kiwis skipper Fisher-Harris spent a few weeks sidelined by a pec injury and then copped a suspension in his first game back, but with Barnett out of the picture, his team will now depend on him in the trenches going forward.
They battled each other to a standstill - Fonua-Blake had more running metres and they both made 34 tackles - but Fisher-Harris scored his first try in a Warriors uniform to start the second-half avalanche of points.
A feature of the Warriors season has been the emergence of the next generation of young forwards, led by teenager Leka Halasima.
After grabbing tries in three consecutive games earlier in the season, he has now scored in back-to-back games against South Sydney and Cronulla to continue his meteoric rise.
Laban let no-one down in his starting role and now provides another option for coach Andrew Webster, with Capewell currently deployed in midfield.
The
revelation was Demitric Vaimauga
, who started the campaign slowly, but has started to show his ability in recent weeks. His 40-minute shift produced 11 runs for 106 metres, 21 tackles and a try, but the highlight may have been his short pass for Fisher-Harris' try after halftime.
Demitric Vaimauga scores a try against the Sharks.
Photo:
David Neilson/Photosport
Halasima, 19, and Laban, 21, are signed through 2029, while Vaimauga, 21, is committed through 2028, so they have plenty of time left with the Warriors. Healey, 22, showed he is worth long-term investment, while Tanner Stowers-Smith, 21, also recorded his second game at his level off the bench.
"The pleasing thing is the effort of our young guys, off the back of really strong leadership this year," Webster said. "We spoke about
trying to be Barney
, but be better at what they're doing, and I thought they stood up.
"This place has changed and you see young kids feeling comfortable in their skin, feeling safe to be themselves, and then go out on the field and express themselves."
This will be how the Warriors cover the absence of Barnett this season.
"I didn't know when it was going to come, but at halftime, I said to the boys, 'We love being in these tight games, these kind of battles', so I was rapt they got the rewards late."
Warriors coach Andrew Webster
The Warriors are now 7/7 this season, when they lead at halftime and continue to lead the competition in set completion on 83 percent, after converting 92 percent (36/39) against the Sharks.
The Warriors take their second bye of the season, which guarantees two points on the table.
The week off is timely for Egan, who is obviously a bit nicked up and will enjoy some extra rest, as will others in the squad that have probably been carrying niggles into games over the past couple of months.
In two weeks, they'll host four-time defending champions Penrith Panthers, just three days after Origin II in Perth. That's a long trip for players hoping to back up for their club.
The Panthers have struggled this season and uncharacteristically sit near the bottom of the table. No-one is fooled by that and they are surely not far from a run at the playoffs.
That said, the Warriors lost to Melbourne Storm off their first bye of the season, so they will need to turn that around.
Since March 21, they will have played just once at Mt Smart in 12 rounds, but now face five games in the next eight there, as well as a third bye. They are now entering a very favourable phase of their schedule.
Don't look now, Warriors fans, this may yet be your year.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
14 hours ago
- RNZ News
Auckland FC's women's A-League team still in limbo
Decision on Auckland FC's delayed women's team was also subject to delays. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/ Analysis - Why has the Australian Professional Leagues taken so long to confirm the worst kept secret in A-Leagues football? Maybe they couldn't find the right words to justify why Auckland FC would not be entering the women's competition in the 2025/26 season. They could have said they were being fiscally responsible by not expanding the women's league when they reportedly owe Football Australia millions of dollars . Or that they were distracted while they grappled with issues of the influence of offshore betting syndicates tainting the game for a second consecutive season . Making sure players get paid would have also been on their radar. But instead A-Leagues executive chair, Stephen Conroy, issued a one-line statement to RNZ - on repeat. On 9 April, five weeks before the A-League Women 2024/25 Grand Final, the statement: "We are finalising our planning for the upcoming Ninja A-League Women 2025/26 season, and we hope to make a further announcement in the near future" was sent via email in response to six questions about the next women's season and Auckland's participation. Ten weeks later, on 18 June, multiple questions were put to the A-Leagues and the exact same one-line response was sent on Conroy's behalf. On 9 July, the message changed to: "We're hoping to have more of an update in the coming few weeks that we can share". "Planning" was taking that long, all while existing women's teams were signing players , coaches and making preparations for a season that those who run the game said was still not finalised. If Auckland were to be involved in the 2025/26 season they would be on the back foot if the team's existence wasn't announced while the opposition were loading up their squads. It was clear Auckland would not have a women's team in the competition yet - but no-one official wanted to publicly say so. Auckland FC deferred any questions to the league pointing out that their comment was reliant on the competition boss speaking first. It was a line chief executive Nick Becker stuck with on Friday when he all but confirmed it could be a couple of season's before Auckland FC have a women's team. "It is the league's decision, it is their announcement so we're just waiting for them to follow up. "It's for them to explain and talk about. They control whether we're in or not." Does some of the blame for this drawn out situation lie with an overly ambitious Auckland FC? With a new A-League men's license in their hands they were quick to point out they wanted to get a women's team for the 2025/26 season, a proclamation that those with an interest in the women's game latched on to and followed up with. Their intent was genuine, but had the club not put a timeframe on it from the start they could have ridden the wave of the inevitable initial criticism about investment in a women's A-League team but they would have also bought themselves some time. They doubled down several times about their commitment to the team and the timing in question to New Zealand media in April and to British media in May. Auckland FC were not caught off guard by the decision to delay the team. Having joined the men's A-League last season they knew about the process and timeline of unveiling a new side. This was not a case of naively holding on to hope that they would make their own deadline for joining the women's competition too. "You can be frustrated, you can be angry with these sorts of things but sometimes it's just life," Becker said. "You look across the league and there's not many occasions where a team has launched both it's men and it's women it does take time. We plan to be around for a long time and you can look back and go 'okay there was a delay there' but in the greater scheme of things we'll have a successful women's team at some point and we look forward to that." A lot goes on in the background of running professional (and semi-professional) sports teams and competitions that the public don't want or need to know about, but the A-League taking months to find a way to frame a decision in a light most favourable is an own goal. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Trangender inclusive sports guidelines had positive impact for community
Rugby NZ says the guidelines had been valuable to the organisation. Photo: ©creativenature / 123RF The removal of guidelines for the inclusion of transgender people in community sport will further alienate people from participating, a member of a health advocacy group says. Rugby NZ says it's been using the advice and found it very helpful and valuable. The government has ordered Sport New Zealand to scrap its work on guidelines for the inclusion of transgender people in community sport. It has also removed the document from its website. First published in 2022, the guidelines do not dictate what individual organisations can decide about participation but they have been available on Sport NZ's website, providing advice based on health research and testimony from those with lived experience. Last year then-minister for sport Chris Bishop asked Sport NZ to review the guidelines for "safety and fairness" and update the principles. The current Minister for Sport and Recreation Mark Mitchell said the government has decided to leave decision making to individual sporting codes and there was nothing wrong with the content in the guidelines. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was about consistency and safety. Member of the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa, student nurse and football player, Avery Zavoda, told Checkpoint she was incredibly disappointed to hear the guidelines were being scrapped altogether. "I feel like the previous advice from Sport NZ was robust and it helped smaller sport clubs and organisations with their inclusion policies as well as also providing guidelines around bullying, discrimination and harassment. I was really sad to see that all of those had been removed now," Zavoda said. Sports Minister Mark Mitchell. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii The "overarching principle" of the document was inclusion. "Every New Zealander has the right to participate in sport and to be treated with respect, empathy and positive regard. Transgender people can take part in sports in the gender they identify with," the document said. The guiding principles were based around: The principles were not mandatory and were not rules or criteria, as Sport NZ noted it would not be possible to provide a one-size-fits-all approach across every code. Despite not being mandatory, Zavoda said the guidelines were beneficial to small clubs who may not have the resources to do their own research into best practice guidelines. "It's taking away a tool that community sport organisations can use to know that they are doing the right thing by their community." Zavoda said she struggled to find a social football team and organisation running the tournaments that would be respectful. "I know many other people have struggled as well. Even though there... was guidance from Sport NZ about our inclusion. "I certainly feel that those guidelines had an impact, I felt like there was more that could be done, taking steps forward rather than now taking steps back and I know that this decision will lead to the feelings of many trans and non-binary people to further feel alienated from being able to play sport - a critical key in health." National's coalition with New Zealand First contains a commitment to "ensure publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition that is not compromised by rules relating to gender". Asked about NZ First saying scrapping the guidelines aligns with the party standing up for "safety and fairness" in sport Zavoda said: "This is not elite sport, it's not about an advantage, you're playing casual community sport, like the kind that you or I should be able to go to, and in that community sport you have a diverse range of physiques, builds and that's across both trans and cisgender people." RNZ also spoke to Lenny, who said the point of community sport is to have fun and the removal of the guidelines just excludes people. "I know it's a divisive thing, transgender people in sport, but all we want to do is be the people that we want to be and be allowed to do that." Lenny said the experience of playing sport as a child was unpleasant. "Going on a sports field, feeling completely overwhelmed and isolated around all these screaming boys just being boys and...I would just stand around on the field not knowing what to do and trying to avoid everybody, so it's not a fun experience." Waikato University's Holly Thorpe, who helped draft the guidelines, said they were written because sports clubs wanted some help. "Sport NZ and our community sports clubs and organisations all want inclusion, they want everybody in New Zealand society to have access to supportive, inclusive, safe environments to participate. "This decision today is not a step towards that." Labour's rainbow issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert has labelled the decision a step backwards and said "this government keeps on kicking people down", and the Human Rights Commission has called this a "sad day". Green Party spokesperson for Takatāpui and Rainbow communities Benjamin Doyle said the directive showed the coalition had once again failed rainbow communities. NZ Rugby says it had been using the advice and found it very helpful and valuable. NZ Rugby's head of participation for community rugby, Mike Hester, told Checkpoint moving forward, the organisation will be guided by values and also by the voices of its participants. "They provided quite a lot of useful advice around how to understand the issue, how to... improve the awareness of some of the challenges that go in the space, so some of that advice was really useful and I think others in the sector have found it useful to help guide their thinking in this space." The guidelines had confirmed a lot of the issues NZ Rugby needed to think about as it moved forward with a community position. Asked if it was important people could play on a team that aligns with their gender, Hester said a key part of community sport was being able to access it and participate in a way that was important to each individual. "We would always feel inclusion is a really important value in rugby, it's a game for all shapes and sizes, everybody's welcome" he said. Ensuring safe participation was also something Rugby NZ would need to think about moving forward, he said. Hester was asked if Sports NZ saw allowing people to play with a team that aligns with their gender as inclusion over fairness, as suggested by NZ First leader Winston Peters. "When we spoke to our communities about this matter over the last couple of years, the themes that came through, particularly from participants in the women's category... what was really prominent was inclusion and safety," Hester said. "Fairness was less prominent for them because in the community space it's actually about other motivations to participate."
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
NZ Rugby reacts to govt directive
sport politics 24 minutes ago The Government has ordered Sport New Zealand to scrap its work on guidelines about the inclusion of transgender people in community sport. New Zealand Rugby said it had been using advice from Sport New Zealand on transgender inclusion in community sport, and found them very helpful and valuable. Mike Hester, New Zealand Rugby's Head of Participation Community Rugby said moving forward, the organisation will be guided by values and also by its participants. He spoke to Melissa Chan-Green.
