New South Wales Cup finals football has been locked in for the One New Zealand Warriors after a commanding 42-10 win over Canterbury Bankstown at Shaun Johnson Stadium on Friday night.
It was fourth (Warriors) against fifth (Bulldogs) with the result moving the Warriors up to 33 points.
With one round left to play next week, other results have left them just one point behind the top two sides Canberra and North Sydney on 34, level with Newtown on 33 and two ahead of fifth-placed Penrith on 31 while the Bulldogs and Dragons are on 30 in a three-way battle for the fifth playoff spot.
All that remains for the Warriors now is whether they can secure a top three spot and a second life for the finals when they play the Newtown Jets next weekend.
After their heartbreaking 22-28 loss to the Sea Eagles last week, the blowtorch was on the Warriors and they responded superbly against Bulldogs on Friday night.
Match: Warriors v Bulldogs
Round 25 -
home Team
Warriors
4th Position
away Team
Bulldogs
7th Position
Venue: Go Media Stadium, Auckland
While they conceded an early try, they quickly turned the momentum in their favour with an irresistible 10-minute three-try charge.
It was started by centre Moala Graham-Taufa scything through off a Taine Tuaupiki pass in the ninth minute, followed by winger Edward Kosi bulldozing across from a slick scrum move off a Tuaupiki pass in the 13th minute and centre Ali Leiataua tapping back a Paul Roache bomb for second rower Jacob Laban to score six minutes later.
That took them out to a 16-6 lead which became 22-6 with a fourth try coming six minutes from halftime when Tuaupiki threaded through a grubber for Taufa-Graham to seize for his second.
The One New Zealand Warriors maintained the rage after the break when Laban scored his second try in the 49th minute, ignited by a Zyon Maiu'u off load and a sharp incision by Graham-Taufa, to blow the margin out to 28-6.
The Bulldogs stemmed the flow with a second Jonathan Sua try but it was all Warriors over the last stanza, first through Tuaupiki pushing through another perfectly-weighted grubber for Setu Tu to hunt down to extend the scoreline to 32-10 with 17 minutes still to play.
Then standoff Ben Farr chimed in twice, the first when he handled twice, releasing Leiataua and Kosi on a raid down the left before backing up Kosi on the inside to cross for his first try and then added a second in the final minute.
One statistic after another - beyond the 42-10 scoreline - spelt out domination with possession in the Warriors' favour 61 per cent to 39 per cent, completions 67 per cent to 56 per cent, metres gained reading an astounding 1760-927, post contact metres more than double 744-334, line breaks 8-2, missed tackles 20-68 and errors 9-16.
Tuaupiki made 143 metres from 22 runs, had three line break assists, four try assists and nine tackle breaks while second rower Leka Halasima finished with a game-high 178 metres from 12 runs and the most tackle breaks (11).
