As their season approaches must-win territory, Webster’s Warriors endured another frustrating night and suffered their 10th loss of the 2024 campaign.
However, things could have been somuch different.
After falling behind 14-0, fighting back to 14-all, and then going behind 20-14, the Warriors had the chance to level scores in the 73rd minute when Addin Fonua-Blake crashed over to score.
But three separate missed conversions from Chanel Harris-Tavita ultimately cost the Warriors two competition points, as Canberra finally notched their first win against Webster at the fourth time of asking.
With Shaun Johnson already out injured and Adam Pompey having suffered a knee injury in the opening half at GIO Stadium, Chanel Harris-Tavita stepped up to take kicking duties and missed a shot to equalise from next to the posts in the dying minutes.
Chanel Harris-Tavita missed three kicks against the Canberra Raiders. Photo / Getty Images
Pompey converted the first Warriors try but had to be helped off the field with a knee injury at halftime and did not return to the field. Harris-Tavita missed all three of his chances, including a kick just to the left of the post that would have levelled the scores at 20-all with five minutes left.
On a night where the Warriors outscored their opposition four tries to three, Webster, in a three-minute post-match press conference, said Harris-Tavita should not be held responsible for the loss.
“We’d love to be 100% on goal kicking every week,” he said. “There’s plenty of other things to put it down to, not goal kicking.
“There are lots of injuries and lots of things going on, but the goal kicking is not the thing that defined us tonight.
“We’ve got to start better, 14-0 [down] isn’t good enough. We were just chasing the game for the best of it.”
The defeat leaves the Warriors’ season precariously poised. After 18 matches played for only seven wins, the Warriors sit 12th on the ladder, four points adrift of the top eight and a finals spot.
But when the fact the Warriors opened round 20 is taken into account, matches in hand could see any of the Brisbane Broncos, Gold Coast Titans or South Sydney Rabbitohs overtake Webster’s side.
The Warriors return home to New Zealand for back-to-back home games against the Wests Tigers and Parramatta Eels in the hope of keeping their season alive from next week.
Nearly a year on from being crowned as the Dally M coach of the year, though, Webster won’t give in.
“The boys had a good week,” he continued. “You could see they were motivated today. They cared, they wanted to win.
“Things just aren’t going our way at the moment. But we’re going to work hard and make our own luck.
Alex Powell is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.
