A stirring 24-16 comeback win secured a home and away double for the One New Zealand Warriors over the Sydney Roosters in Sunday’s 13th-round New South Wales Cup contest in Sydney.
Just three weeks ago they recovered from a 4-14 halftime deficit to beat the Roosters 26-20 at North Harbour Stadium.
And they found themselves in a similar position in the return encounter after the home side extended a 12-6 halftime lead to 16-6 in the opening minutes of the second half - then a change came across the match.
Resilience has been a notable trait of Warriors teams through the grades again this season it showed through in spades at Wentworth Park.
Match: Roosters v Warriors
Round 13 -
home Team
Roosters
12th Position
away Team
Warriors
5th Position
Venue: Wentworth Park, Sydney
The fightback started not too long after Demitric Sifakula, on the comeback from knee surgery, had carried the ball powerfully to give his team good field position.
He went close to scoring himself soon after before the Warriors hit their right side, centre Moala Graham-Taufa – back in the NSW Cup after his NRL heroics last week – running a great line against the grain to score off a Ben Farr pass.
Motu Pasikala’s conversion narrowed the gap to 12-16 and then Graham-Taufa was at it again against his former club in the 61st minute.
From a quick tap from a penalty 10 metres out he caught the Roosters out, charging on an angled run through multiple defenders to get the ball down between the posts.
From 10 points down, the Warriors had shot into an 18-16 lead with eight minutes to play.
They were controlling the match and effectively sealed the result four minutes later after concerted pressure, a short side play on the left seeing standoff Caleb Laiman give big left winger Edward Kosi an open passage to score in the corner. Pasikala completed a perfect day with the boot adding his fourth conversion.
The Warriors had made some changes to their originally selected side with second rower Eddie Ieremia moved into the centres and Leka Halasima and Jacob Laban starting in the second row.
While Graham-Taufa's double and Kosi's late touchdown were the keys to victory, the try of the day was the Warriors' first in the 30th minute when Farr made a sensational break from 60 metres out, weaving in and out of defenders before off loading close to the Roosters' line for Luke Hanson to score.
The seventh win of the season still has the Warriors seventh on the ladder on 15 points but just a point behind the Dragons (fifth) and Bulldogs (sixth).
