NRL: Warriors' home playoff hopes take hit

Dan Hunt of the Dragons is tackled. Photo / Getty Images

Dragons 26
Warriors 22

The New Zealand Warriors' hopes of home advantage in the first week of the National Rugby League playoffs took a big hit today when they fell to a 26-22 defeat to defending premiers St George Illawarra.

The Warriors, having started the round in fourth position and looking for their first win at Wollongong since 1996, paid for a disappointing second half to drop to sixth on the table.

They will slip a spot further if Wests Tigers beat second-bottom Gold Coast tomorrow night.

They are at home against fourth-placed North Queensland in the final round of the regular season next week.

Victory for the faltering Dragons ended a five-match losing streak and gave them just their third win in their past 12 outings.

It also lifted them above the Warriors to fifth, and just a point outside the top four.

The Warriors made all the running early on, helped by home skipper Ben Hornby putting back-to-back kick-offs out on the full.

Dominating possession and territory, they opened the scoring after six minutes with a Joel Moon offload setting up a try for winger Krisnan Inu, recalled to side because of injury to Manu Vatuvei.

When Hornby sent a kickoff long for the second time, it gave the Warriors further field position and lifewire fullback Kevin Locke again showed his attacking ability by beating six defenders from 15 metres out to score.

Down 10-0, and having had only one use of the ball in the first 12 minutes, the Dragons hit back with two tries of their own during a passage of mistake-free football.

Centre Mark Gasnier, back after two weeks out with a hip injury, profited from an offload from Beau Scott to touch down.

Then it was the turn of winger Brett Morris, another absentee from the last-up defeat to Melbourne after he became a father, producing a spectacular dive to dot down in the corner.

The Warriors went back in front when Feleti Mateo produced another of his characteristic offloads and Locke's acceleration created an easy try for winger Bill Tupou.

James Maloney's sideline conversion took the Warriors out to a 16-10 halftime lead.

The Dragon levelled again early in the second half, fullback Darius Boyd following up his own kick ahead to dot down.

Jamie Soward added the extra and then a penalty to nudge the Dragons ahead for the first time.

There was worse for the visitors when Kiwi winger Jason Nightingale finished of a slick move for his third try against the Warriors this year, and Soward's sideline conversion pushed the margin out to eight points.

The Warriors set up a tight finish by closing the gap with a converted try after Mateo went through a gaping defensive hole to score.

But it was left to Soward in the final minute to close out the contest with an easy penalty.

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 26 (D Boyd M Gasnier B Morris J Nightingale tries J Soward 5 goals) bt WARRIORS 22 (K Inu K Locke F Mateo B Tupou tries J Maloney 3 goals) at WIN Stadium. Referee: Ben Cummins, Ashley Klein. Crowd: 15,732.

- NZPA