Warriors slump to sixth straight defeat

By Christopher Reive

The Warriors continue to go through the motions of a forgettable year.

Like reruns of Friends, their season has gotten to a point where you know what's coming when you tune in. They're going to have moments where you think they could compete with the top six, but they're going to make unnecessary and, at times, inexcusable errors to invite pressure and concede cheap points.

Their 38-16 loss to the Cronulla Sharks on Sunday night followed suit in their sixth straight defeat.

"We start good then we go to crap," Josh Curran told Sky Sport after the game. "We just need to put an 80-minute performance together.

"Everyone needs to transition. If we make an error, we need to go straight back into defence. But we're not doing that. We're just getting points put on us and, honestly, it's embarrassing."

As usual, there were moments that caught the eye. Curran looked as though he hadn't missed a step in his return from injury, and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak executed a try put-down that we'll be seeing replays of for some time.

But far more of those moments were negative. A passive first-half defence was exemplified by Shaun Johnson allowing Sharks winger Ronaldo Mulitalo to run the ball closer to the posts on the first of his two tries rather than make him put the ball down out wide. Fullback Reece Walsh had a forgettable night after running in the first try of the match and throughout the contest, their inability to slow down the Sharks play-the-ball and a few bad errors saw the Warriors take themselves out of the contest.

In their first game under interim head coach Stacey Jones, the Warriors got off to a flying start and, to be fair, put on a much better display than last week's demolition by Manly. The Sharks started slow and thanks to a few ruck infringements and penalties, the Warriors were allowed to play the opening minutes in Sharks territory.

And thanks to two moments of brilliance from Wayde Egan – one pinpoint pass to set up Walsh followed by a sneaky dart from dummy half – saw the Warriors lead by 12 inside as many minutes.

Then things went predictably wrong.

The Sharks hit back just two minutes after Egan's try – their first attacking chance in opposition territory – and the Warriors put the following restart out on the full.

The Sharks ran in three tries in 10 minutes to take the lead, ultimately scoring five tries in the first half to take a 24-12 lead into the break.

Again, the Warriors showed plenty of fight in the first 20 minutes of the second half while the Sharks staggered out of the blocks following the restart. After not getting the ball for what would have been a sure try moments earlier, Watene-Zelezniak took to the heavens to score a try out wide with a spectacular diving finish.

The last time they played the Sharks, the Warriors didn't score a point in the second half. So, things were looking up – until the Sharks got going again.

It took a try through wing Sione Katoa – initially ruled a no-try but overturned by the bunker after a long review – to get the Sharks going again, but just like in the first half, once they got started they were too much for the Warriors.

Tries to Mulitalo, William Kennedy, and a final, length of the field effort from Katoa put the result to bed."

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission