Top four side the Sydney Roosters consigned the One New Zealand Warriors to a season-ending 16-32 loss in their SG Ball Cup (under-19) encounter at Navigation Homes Stadium in Pukekohe on Sunday.
The draw had handed the Warriors a challenging end to their campaign with matches against the third-ranked Rabbitohs and then the fourth-placed Roosters in the final two rounds.
Coming off their 16-16 draw with South Sydney, the home side wasn’t able to maintain the momentum as the Roosters dominated the first half to jump to a 20-0 lead.
The home side made a terrific start just two minutes into the second half, though.
Bringing the ball back on a kick return, Roosters fullback was rounded up in a three-man tackle and lost possession with Warriors captain Kahu Capper swooping on the loose ball and off-loading for right winger Connor Bowden to scamper 20 metres to score his ninth try in seven games.
Match: Warriors v Roosters
Round 9 -
home Team
Warriors
away Team
Roosters
Venue: Navigation Home Stadium, Pukekohe
Having regained some lost ground, the Warriors gave it back as the Roosters stretched to 26-6 with their fifth try.
The Warriors kept battling, halfback Maui Winitana-Patelesio wrenching his way out of tackles close to the line to get the ball down in a real show of determination.
The scoreline of 26-10 became 32-10 with the Roosters’ final try but eight minutes from fulltime the Warriors ended the match positively with a try to centre Compton Purcell. Picking up a pass that went to ground, left winger Meihana Pauling took off to the right on a probing cross-field run, weaving away from defenders and ricocheting off another before feeding Purcell to score in the corner.
So ended a season which saw the Warriors finishing 13th with just one win and draw but knowing they had been in the fight in six of their nine games.
