Outrageous finish highlights flaws for Warriors

By Christopher Reive

As far as game-winning sequences go, they don’t come any better than Storm winger Xavier Coates’ effort to crush the Warriors.

With just seconds on the clock, Coates launched himself at the try line from 6m out, contorting his body after a solid effort from Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to force him into touch, put the ball down just before his other hand hit the turn out of bounds, and give the hosts a 30-26 win in Melbourne on Saturday night.

With three minutes to go, the Warriors led by eight points and looked set for their first win over the Storm in Melbourne for a decade. But an in-and-out move to put Ryan Papenhuyzen over, soon followed by Coates scoring one of the most impressive game-winners you’d ever hope to see, saw the Warriors came crashing down to Earth.

It was a tough way to end things after the Warriors had fought back from an 18-6 halftime deficit, but coach Andrew Webster credited the Storm for their execution and said had his side shown up from the start, those last minutes wouldn’t have been an issue.

“It’s pretty obvious it’s gut-wrenching. It’s one of those ones where it hurts. There’s parts of me that are proud, but there are parts where I want the boys to realise if they [had done] that for the 80 minutes, we wouldn’t [have been] in that situation at the end of the game,” Webster said.

“Even the Papenhuyzen try - the one he scored in the first half and the one he scored in the second half - the out and back in play, it’s a huge play. You’ve got to respect that and we’ve got to find a way to stop it.

“Then when you’ve got a winger who can jump over a skyscraper, then put the ball down in the corner - that’s pretty amazing. But it’s hard to cheer them when you’re feeling this way.”

The Warriors did themselves no favours in the first half as a high error count gave Melbourne plenty of opportunities to strike. When the Warriors got inside Storm territory, they threatened - scoring a try on their first trip down that end of the field in the match.

The Storm scored three tries in the first 22 minutes of the game and looked comfortable at halftime. But the Warriors reset at the break and returned a more composed outfit.

That saw them put the heat on the Storm both through the middle and with their wide threats; Roger Tuivasa-Sheck in particular having a strong impact when the ball was in his hands.

Until the final three minutes of the game, the Warriors outscored Melbourne 20-0 in the second half.

Regardless, they’ll head into their week-three game against the Canberra Raiders in Christchurch without a win.

“I said to the boys, ‘When you put all your emotions, your physical [ability] and everything you can into two performances, you’re trying really hard and don’t get what you want - particularly tonight, right on the siren - it’s going to test you’,” Webster said.

“It’s going to test what we’re about as a team, as a club, and how much we are willing to put our energy into winning every day next week, then to go and get the two points. We’re going to Christchurch with a full house, our fans, but it’s on us now to make sure we’ve got our heads up and attack the week.

“We can’t sook for long.”

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