Shaun Johnson’s second try against the Dolphins was the turning point of the game, believes Warriors coach Andrew Webster.
The Warriors and Dolphins were locked in a defensive dominated arm-wrestle for the first 52 minutes at Mt Smart Stadium and Webster felt whichever team scored next would get on a match-winning roll.
Thankfully for Webster it was the Warriors, with Johnson scoring his second stunning solo try of the night, which was followed by a try to Luke Metcalf and a pair from Dallin Watene-Zelezniak. The hosts kicked clear to win 30-8 for their seventh win of the NRL season.
“For whoever scored the try it would have been the turning point, because we’d been hammering away at it, knocking the door down, had heaps of opportunities,” Webster said.
“Mitch Barnett got held up in the second half and you could say there were three or four more missed opportunities. But it took a halfback, Shaun, to step and put the ball over the line.
“He’ll remind us of that all week. But that was good and it was the moment that changed, because we felt we finally got our reward.
Phil Walter/Getty Images
Shaun Johnson of the Warriors.
“So then we understood that if we stay at it, this is what will happen, rather than getting frustrated and throwing the toys out. We know that it works in the end if you stay solid.”
It has been a vintage year from the 32-year-old Johnson, but this could possibly be his best game of the campaign.
“He was unbelievable,” Webster said of Johnson.
“I thought he was great, he was composed. I felt Wayde Egan’s deception around the ruck let him worry about different patches of the grass and then when he saw the opportunity he wanted to take it.
“After halftime he came out and ran the football. The try was the icing, but there were so many other things about Shaun’s game that were good leading up to that moment.
“That’s what excited me, he wanted to run off the back of some of Wayde’s plays, he made sure he was a threat and he got the rewards.”
Phil Walter/Getty Images
Rocco Berry failed a HIA on Saturday night, so will have to sit out next weekend’s game against the Raiders.
The Warriors had numerous tries ruled out, or made critical mistakes up until Johnson’s second try and it did feel like last weekend’s frustrating game in Napier to some degree.
But Webster said a key difference this week was that they kept their composure.
“I thought we learnt from last week,” he said.
“We had so many opportunities to score and didn’t. Credit to the opposition, they were desperate, held us up a few times.
“We knew they’re a team that doesn’t go away, there were certainly things we could have executed better in that first half, but we spoke about it at half-time, that this was a lesson learnt.
“Last week we were frustrated that we didn’t ice opportunities against the Broncos. Today we wanted to go out there and grind them into the ground and our defence did that in the second half, particularly them coming off their line.
“It felt like what the Roosters did to us in the wet, we did to them tonight and that was probably the most pleasing part.”
This was the Warriors’ biggest win of the season and for once, the sell out crowd of 22,686 were able to relax over the last 10 minutes, although Webster said he stayed anxious.
“It was good with six minutes to go, just knowing that it was hard to get beaten. I don’t know why, but it was still nerve wracking,” he said.
“We did still grind it out, we grinded it out right to that point where we knew and then we got to enjoy it. It’s not like we won fancy, we stayed tough and solid and our defence went after them.
“It reminded me of what the Roosters did to us and that’s what we’ve been missing. Guys like Mitch Barnett made a big difference by going after them defensively and we saw the results.”
