Sharks 18
Warriors 10
The New Zealand Warriors' National Rugby League playoff hopes are looking ever shakier after a 10-18 defeat to the bottom-placed Cronulla Sharks this afternoon.
A sluggish first half, which saw them trail 4-18 at the break, crippled the Warriors who now have just one win from their last six matches.
A second half fightback was stymied by crucial handling errors late in the match.
The result before 14,082 fans at Toyota Park left the Warriors five points outside the top eight and it gets no easier with the Newcastle Knights looming in Auckland on Friday night.
Despite the warhorse efforts of captain Steve Price, backing up four days after State of Origin duty, and Stacey Jones, who set up both their tries, the Warriors had to bow to the Sharks' superior commitment.
Brilliantly led by Trent Barrett in the absence of injured skipper Paul Gallen, the Sharks belied their status as strugglers to notch successive wins, a week after they broke a nine-match losing streak with a 13-10 victory over Parramatta.
Slow starts have reached epidemic proportions for the Warriors and it continued today; a seventh consecutive match without scoring in the opening 20 minutes.
The Sharks, meanwhile, resembled premiership contenders early on, as they hurled the ball around with a handy sea breeze at their backs. This from a team with the worst attack in the NRL, who'd averaged just 13.5 points per game this season.
They topped that by the half hour mark as they led 18-0 - with three tries all converted by former Kiwis winger Luke Covell - and nothing went right for the Warriors who were too lateral in attack.
The Sharks scored in just the seventh minute after a 40-20 kick by Barrett, then Reece Williams found space in the centres and put Matt Wright over.
Second rower Anthony Tupou doubled the lead when Manu Vatuvei, looking into the sun, couldn't control a Barrett bomb, then it was 18-0 in the 28th minute when nippy Sharks fullback Nathan Stapleton finished a slick set move close to the ruck, sparked by hooker Terence Seuseu.
Warriors prop Sam Rapira was knocked cold in a head clash with Luke Douglas but bravely carried on as he and Price churned out the metres.
Vatuvei finally bagged the visitors' crucial opening try five minutes before the break when Simon Mannering offloaded, Jones spied his big winger all alone and found him with a pinpoint crosskick.
The Warriors turned with the breeze and a spring in their steps after the interval, and momentum began to shift.
Just five minutes in, Jones narrowed the gap when he charged at the line and offloaded one-handed to benchman Lewis Brown to charge over. Kevin Locke's goal narrowed the gap to eight.
It became an arm wrestle in the second half as both sides blew scoring chances but the Warriors' defence held firm.
The Warriors lost their hardest worker Price for 10 minutes after a head clash left him requiring stitches above his left eye.
A Jones fumble 10m from his own line looked to have finished the Warriors but a magnificent Wade McKinnon trysaver on Barrett kept the visitors in the match entering the final 10 minutes.
The Warriors had a royal chance to hit back in the 72nd minute but Price lost the ball in a heavy tackle 2m out, then Vatuvei was forced out in the corner in one of their last throws of the dice.
Sharks 18 (Matt Wright, Anthony Tupou, Nathan Stapleton tries; Luke Covell 3 goals)
Warriors 10 (Manu Vatuvei, Lewis Brown tries; Kevin Locke goal).
Halftime: 18-4.
- NZPA