Sweet and sour mix for Warriors in first pre-season trial

By Michael Burgess

The Warriors hierarchy will be satisfied – if not entirely happy – with their first outing of the season.

The Auckland club managed a 12-12 draw with the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks on Friday night, in a match where they dominated for decent periods but didn’t have the attacking polish required. Trials are never really about results – as coaches are looking to tick various boxes – but it felt important to avoid defeat in Sydney, especially given the Sharks rested many of their big guns while the Warriors started much closer to full strength.

Wing Dallin Watene-Zelezniak left the field with a wrist injury in the 10th minute, which is a concern, given the impending Las Vegas departure, but otherwise the Warriors appeared to come through unscathed. In the first match of the post-Shaun Johnson era, Luke Metcalf had a busy stint at halfback in a strong audition for the No 7 jersey.

Lock Erin Clark was the pick of the new arrivals – with his powerful direct running – while young forward Demitric Vaimauga underlined his potential. James Fisher-Harris was defensively strong, Mitch Barnett picked up where he left off in 2024 and Taine Tuaupiki was his usual livewire self.

Tuaupiki’s 52nd-minute try broke a 6-6 halftime deadlock and the Warriors should have gone on with it from there but couldn’t take their chances. The final quarter saw an alphabet soup of players and Cronulla came home stronger, levelling the scores with a converted 74th-minute try and applying pressure at the death.

Warriors’ coach Andrew Webster will be pleased with the energy and defensive intent but equally disappointed with some of the decision-making on the ball and inability to make the most of promising situations. They made a total of 16 errors on a scrappy night. Pre-season rust is part of trials but some were avoidable.

The visitors were also frustratingly caught three times under the new strict interpretation of the play-the-ball rule, which requires an honest attempt to make contact with the foot. But Webster got a look at a large swathe of players, including young hooker Sam Healey, who showed promise, while Jett Cleary was introduced in the final quarter.

The first half was, as expected, a bit messy. Errors, penalties and infringements meant the visitors struggled to gain momentum. An early Ed Kosi spill – followed by consecutive set restarts – led to Cronulla prop Tim Hazelton crossing near the posts in the fourth minute. But, with a couple of exceptions, Cronulla didn’t really come close to scoring again in the first period, as the Warriors tightened up.

The Warriors were aggressive in their own quarter, as the Sharks – missing their main playmakers – struggled to find space and time. The attack took a while to get going. After opportunities on both flanks – one of which resulted in Watene-Zelezniak’s injury – they opened their account through Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad’s try. The incursion was thanks to the direct running of Dylan Walker, along with a neat offload from the impressive Vaimauga. Te Maire Martin should have extended the lead but chose to bat the ball to his winger, who was covered, as he misjudged the proximity of the tryline.

There was some neat work around the ruck, as they made hay through the middle, even if the finishing touches were missing, either down to impatience or inaccuracy. However, there were untidy moments and five set restarts conceded, though the application of that rule was again inconsistent.

The second half was harder to interpret, as the benches emptied. A nice combination from Metcalf and Nicoll-Klokstad set up Tuaupiki for his clever finish but the Warriors couldn’t hammer home their advantage.

After Cronulla had a try disallowed in the 70th minute for obstruction, Hohepa Puru finished a period of pressure when he was first to a grubber on the inside. A late error from the Auckland team – when a Cronulla kick appeared to be going dead – gifted the Sharks another opportunity but the Warriors kept their line intact.

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