At Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland: Warriors 30 (Shaun Johnson 2, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak 2, Luke Metcalf tries; Johnson 5 goals) Dolphins 8 (Tesi Niu, Jamayne Isaako tries). HT: 6-4.
Shaun Johnson scored himself a pair of tries as the Warriors recorded their biggest victory of the season in a 30-8 win over the Dolphins at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday night.
It was vintage Johnson as he showed nifty footwork to set up this crucial victory to keep the Warriors inside the NRL’s top-eight. At the age of 32, Johnson’s strengths are supposed to be about reading the game, creating opportunities for others and solid kicking.
But this was the Johnson of old, playing the style of dazzling footy that earned him the Golden Boot in 2014 as the world’s best player.
And the Warriors really needed him to step up, because it took his second try to finally break the shackles off this game.
Defensively the Warriors were rock solid against a Dolphins team that has been one of the more creative outfits in the NRL this season and they rarely gave Wayne Bennett’s team a sniff.
The Warriors haven’t been able to beat the heavyweight teams this season, so that makes it more important to defeat the sides that look to be in the battle for the lower parts of the top-eight.
Phil Walter/Getty Images
Shaun Johnson continued his remarkable season in the win over the Dolphins at Mt Smart Stadium.
Up until Johnson’s second try it was an arm wrestle between two similarly matched teams, who couldn’t get their attacks working as well as they wanted.
That resulted in a lot of footy played in the middle of the park in the first half and not too many try scoring opportunities.
The Dolphins were unable to get into any rhythm early on, they weren’t clinical as going through their sets, weren’t threatening enough on the last tackle and conceded too many penalties.
After winning a challenge from what was ruled a knock on by Jackson Ford, the Warriors had a set deep in Dolphins’ territory, and from it Johnson scored one of his trademark tries, throwing a dummy to create an opening then beating another defender with a sidestep to go in.
Phil Walter/Getty Images
Kodi Nikorima had a strong first half for the Dolphins, but like the rest of his team, struggled over the second 40 minutes.
In the 13th minute Rocco Berry was knocked out when he clashed heads with Jarrod Wallace, but there was also a shoulder involved from the Dolphins player, so he was put on report, while Berry was gone for the game.
The Dolphins got on the board in the 34th minute when Kodi Nikorima, who seemed to be everywhere, threw a high pass out wide to Tesi Niu that Dallin Watene-Zelezniak could only get his fingertips to and so Niu was able to catch the ball and stroll in to score.
Luke Metcalf had a try rubbed out for a double movement late in the first half, while the theme at the start of the second period was the Warriors making mistakes in the Dolphins’ red zone.
Anthony Milford was sin binned for a late hit on Marcelo Montoya in the 48th minute and that was followed by three more wasted try scoring opportunities by the Warriors, with the last being a tough one to swallow as it was ruled Marata Niukore took out Isaiya Katoa when Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad dived into the corner.
But at last the Warriors managed to not stuff it up as Johnson wriggled his way through the defence for his second try.
That was quickly followed by Luke Metcalf’s first try for the Warriors as the deadlock was finally broken and Watene-Zelezniak’s tries in the 68th and 71st minutes confirmed the win.
AT A GLANCE
The big moment
Shaun Johnson’s second try was as good as is first, but far more significant as it gave the Warriors some reward after botching earlier attempts.
Match rating
7/10: Once again the Warriors played in a game where there were plenty of tries ruled out and while it may be frustrating for spectators, the calls were correct. Thank heavens for Johnson lighting up this game.
MVP
Kodi Nikorima had a superb first half for the Dolphins, but Johnson was just magnificent in enabling his team to record this massive win.
The big picture
The win keeps the Warriors inside the top-eight as they go through a loss, win, loss, win sequence of results, but they should be able to take momentum into next weekend’s game against the Raiders.
