Warriors make it 4 in a row with Upset Win

The New Zealand Warriors have scored a 23-12 upset win over the Sydney Roosters, in front of 11,040 fans at Allianz Stadium.

The early stages of the match was all Warriors with most of the field position, momentum and points with the visitors through most of the first half.

The first points of the match went to Warriors lock Elijah Taylor who took advantage of some good lead up work by Thomas Leuluai and Shaun Johnson as well as a poor defensive read from Martin Kennedy for the Roosters and was converted by Feleti Mateo with regular kicker Shaun Johnson surprisingly not taking the shots at goal.

The Warriors then continued their momentum with some strong defence and on the back of consecutive penalties they were able to get on the board through rookie winger Ngani Laumape but did have to wait for the Video Referees to give him the green lights.

It wasn’t until the final five minutes of the first half that the Roosters looked like scoring however on their first go they were called back for a forward pass but soon after they were able to score through Anthony Minichello then right on the stroke of half time they were able to score through Sonny Bill Williams to take an unlikely 12-10 lead at half time.

The opening to the second half was an arm wrestle with neither side chancing their hand too much in the opening ten minutes of the second half although Glen Fisiiahi did look to have the visitors third try only to be denied by the video referees.

The Roosters then started to get some momentum however it was the Warriors who seemed to be capitalising on the chances with Ben Matulino cleaning up on a Shaun Johnson bomb only to see the No Try spin up on the screen.

From there the Roosters went on the attack and a kick from James Maloney came down around 15m out from the Warriors line however it was Glen Fisiiahi who was the man to clean it up and he ran 85 metres downfield to get the Warriors back into the lead.

Even though they managed to secure the lead it was the Roosters who were creating all the pressure and it was through a very embarrassing piece of play from Shaun Kenny-Dowall who had the ball knocked out of his hands when he had an open tryline by Glen Fisiiahi.

Soon after that Shaun Kenny-Dowall again helped save the opposition when he put a poor grubber kick straight into the legs of Manu Vatuvei who then ran 80 metres to score out wide to give the Warriors a 20-12 lead.

From there the Roosters tried short kickoff’s and goal line dropouts and from a poor dropout they conceded a penalty for it not going the required 10m and the Warriors took the easy two points to push the lead to ten points and soon after Shaun Johnson took the one point option from in front to take the win 23-12.

Mixed fortunes await each side next week with the Roosters having to take on an almost full-strength Bulldogs side at ANZ Stadium on Friday night meanwhile the Warriors have the luxury of having the bye before having to take on the Broncos at Mt Smart Stadium.


Match Details
Sydney Roosters 12 New Zealand Warriors 23
Venue: Sydney Football Stadium
Crowd: 11040
Halftime Score: Sydney Roosters 12-10

LeagueUnlimited.com Players of the Match:
3 points - Glen Fisiiahi
2 points - Ngani Laumape
1 point - Sam Moa

SYDNEY ROOSTERS (12)
Tries: Anthony Minichiello, Sonny Bill Williams
Field Goals:
Conversions: James Maloney (2/2)
Penalty Goals:

NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS (23)
Tries: Elijah Taylor, Ngani Laumape, Glen Fisiiahi, Manu Vatuvei (4)
Field Goals: Shaun Johnson (1/1)
Conversions: Feleti Mateo (2/4)
Penalty Goals: Shaun Johnson (1/1)

LeagueUnlimited.com Live Commentary