Warriors v Knights result: Leka Halasima scores game-winning try on final play to secure crucial win

Leka Halasima celebrates with teammates after scoring the game-winning try against the Warriors. Photo / Photosport

Knights 15

Warriors 20

Have you ever seen anything like this?

Has anybody even seen anything like this?

In 30 years of the Warriors, there haven’t been too many crazier finishes from the Auckland club.

They were gone – dead and buried. In a subpar performance, they had lost this game three or four times before Leka Halasima’s try from the heavens for a last-gasp 20-15 win.

It was a moment of divine intervention from the gifted youngster, who scored with time up, charging through on an incredible 45-metre run, leaving defenders in his wake, after a Tanah Boyd field goal was charged down.

Halasima picked up the ball with three seconds left on the clock, then accelerated away into open space, stepping the fullback before carrying three Knights defenders over the line.

It was one of the great Warriors tries, from a teenager who is already a cult hero.

Leka Halasima celebrates his game-winning try. Photo / Photosport

It saved the team from what would have been a shock defeat, as Newcastle hung on to a 15-14 lead.

In a remarkable finale, Boyd had missed a penalty from 34 metres out with less than a minute to play which looked the end, while the halfback had earlier skewed a field goal attempt wide.

It ended up being a remarkable escape – after an off-colour display.

Against a Newcastle team who were seemingly down and out – struggling for form and riddled with illness on the eve of the game – the Warriors invited constant pressure from the second quarter onwards.

Their left edge defence was all over the place – as the Knights scored three tries and could have easily had a couple more – while the attack was too lateral.

The Warriors never stopped trying – shown by the way they ended the match – but were lucky to get out of jail, even if Newcastle had received a couple of fortunate calls.

It’s a massive result, as a defeat would have left their top-four hopes in the balance, as the Brisbane Broncos mount their charge.

Now they are well placed, with four of their last seven matches at home, including the next two weeks.

They’ll have to improve though - and surely will - as tends to happen with such unexpected finishes.

The Warriors made a shaky start - with two incomplete sets - but the Knights couldn’t take advantage, with winger Greg Marzhew dropping the ball cold with the line open.

The visitors made the most of the reprieve, with Adam Pompey continuing his run against Newcastle with a well-taken seventh-minute try.

It was a neat grubber from Boyd with the sequence sparked by a Roger Tuivasa-Sheck break.

From there it was one-way traffic for the rest of the first quarter, with the Warriors camped in the Newcastle redzone.

The Knights defence was outstanding, though the Warriors should have found more, given their territorial dominance but they were too lateral.

It looked like Wayde Egan had darted over but the bunker found a double movement in a contentious call, that will be debated this week.

That was a flashpoint, as everything unravelled from there with three Knights tries in nine minutes.

Fletcher Hunt grabbed a rebound from a bomb – after Jackson Ford had been pinged for one of those frustrating forensic penalties – before Dane Gagai grabbed their second, after Marzhew had somehow kept the ball alive, though the Warriors felt he was tackled.

It was a gut punch, as Taine Tuaupiki then Halasima had come up with brilliant try-saving tackles in the preceding set before, only for Watene-Zelezniak to undo that good work with a careless play the ball.

Adam Pompey celebrates his try against the Knights. Photo / Photosport

The sense that the tide had turned came a few minutes later, with a Leo Thompson strip on Ford unnoticed (and surprisingly no challenge) before Marzhew was across for their third.

The Warriors’ left edge defence was in tatters, with Watene-Zelezniak jamming in again.

The Knights should have had a fourth – with a desperate Tuaupiki tackle denying Jack Cogger - who failed to use his open winger.

The Warriors smartened up after the break – with more solidity about their work, but still without the polish.

Tuaupiki left the field in the 49th minute for an HIA assessment, before Demetric Vaimauga’s vital try moments later.

The youngster, who had started the half with a big kickoff return, powered through after a big Erin Clark run.

A Gagai penalty then edged the Knights ahead, while the Warriors continued to make poor decisions, epitomised when Chanel Harris-Tavita was driven over the sideline on the first tackle, after the visitors had worked hard to earn a repeat set.

A Boyd penalty levelled the scores with 13 minutes to play, though the halfback then sprayed a field goal attempt wide from almost adjacent to the posts.

That proved crucial, as Cogger’s long-range attempt drifted over by a metre with six minutes to play.

Things got worse quickly, as Boyd sent the resultant kickoff long, to invite more pressure. Boyd tried a two-point field goal – though never looked likely – before another life, with Jackson Hastings ruled to be not square at marker after a captain’s challenge.

Boyd took his time with the penalty attempt but didn’t look confident, pulling it wide and that looked to be the end of it.

And then came Leka.

Knights 15 (Fletcher Hunt, Dane Gagai, Greg Marzhew tries; Gagai pen, Jack Cogger field goal)

Warriors 20 (Adam Pompey, Demetric Vaimauga, Leka Halasima tries; Tanah Boyd 3 cons, pen)

HT: 12-6

Michael Burgess has been a Sports Journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America’s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast.