Rugby League: Warriors send tremors through playoffs

By PETER JESSUP in Sydney

The Warriors have earned new respect in Australia and sent tremors through the other clubs in the NRL playoffs after their off-loading extravaganza put away premiership favourites the Bulldogs at the Sydney Showgrounds.

The nine-try result - left wing Francis Meli getting five of them to break the all-time record for touchdowns in a finals series game - was no fluke.

The Dogs tried to match the Warriors in intimidation, power and off-loads but couldn't compete anywhere on the field. This game was evidence that their two-year lay-off from playoffs, plus any easy walk in this season, has left them well behind the pack in terms of intensity.

They kept kicking the ball early in the tackle count.

The Warriors, who were simply superb, loved the tactic.

They hardly dropped the ball all game despite throwing it around from the first set. That's self-belief, and the confidence will have taken another step up after this.

Richard Villasanti, supposedly a target of Bulldogs prop Mark O'Meley, set things up with some smashing bursts onto the ball and one 40m run up the sideline before being taken down by a wing.

"The physical side is what we play the game for," he said afterwards. "A big charge really fires the guys up."

Villasanti said he didn't take any notice of O'Meley's trash-talk before Saturday's match, and went out to play his natural game. The Warriors were confident going in, but would gain new momentum from the result.

"It comes down to mental application now," he said, certain that the team had the skill to beat any one of the six teams left after a round that eliminated the Broncos and Newcastle.

The Warriors will fancy their chances against Canberra at Aussie Stadium next Saturday night. The Raiders are hobbled by injury and now in self-doubt mode after being dumped by Melbourne last Friday night.

The Warriors flew back to Auckland yesterday with no injury concerns bar the continuing suspicion that Stacey Jones might break down with groin trouble. He was hobbling just before halftime and just after the break asked to be taken from the field.

Coach Daniel Anderson sent the message back that they would do that when the Warriors established a 20-point gap.

With 15 minutes to go Sione Faumuina, one of their best at busting the line, ran 50m to score and the Little General got his rest.

"He had a tremendous impact for a guy carrying an injury," Anderson said.

Jones was too "up" to be sore afterwards, thrilled to watch the team go on and score again when Brent Webb wrong-footed the markers at dummy-half 5m from the line, then over-handed the ball to Meli for his last and record-breaking try.

Webb could have scored himself but admitted he'd taken a knock to his confidence when sin-binned for 10 minutes just after halftime. He had cut down speedster Nigel Vagana after a break but held him down too long, earning a penalty the Warriors had no argument with.

"It was a bit of a brain explosion, the boys were scrambling back well, maybe it wasn't the best thing to do."

He thought he may have blown it for them in that early period in the second half. He let a high ball bounce in front of the Warriors' posts two minutes after the break to let the Dogs come back to 16-10. When he was binned, and the team penalised, O'Meley ran an angle on to a Brent Sherwin pass to score and level it.

Anderson replaced Webb at fullback with Motu Tony, who had wire removed from a broken thumb mid-week after a month off for repair, and Tony sparked them to two tries, sending Meli away for his second and getting one himself from dummy-half.

The Dogs were shattered. A man up and still unable to mount any pressure, they wilted psychologically and the Warriors tore them to shreds. A measure of how keen the Warriors were to play was Henry Fa'afili's leaping the sideline to flick a Dogs kick back into play volleyball-style with two minutes to go, while the Bulldogs walked around hands on hips. The Bulldog army had already gone home.

It was only the second time this season the Dogs had been beaten by more than 13 points, the other was a 38-6 loss to the Tigers in round one.

For the Warriors there were heroes galore. No one turned in an ordinary game and some, including Villasanti and, of course, Meli, played their best of the season.

Watch the bookies' odds tumble.

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