Warriors light up Shark park

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Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks v Warriors

The Cronulla Sharks have again struggled to drop their pretenders tag yet again as the New Zealand Warriors have lit up Shark Park with a 40-12 victory.

It was a fast start for the visitors when DWZ flew through the air and outjumped Mawene Hiroti to get the ball down although not entirely cleanly. The Warriors extended their lead soon after when again off a kick, they were able to score this time a Chanel Harris-Tevita kick was spilt by Will Kennedy and Adam Pompey was on the spot to score; Metcalf converted and the Warriors lead 10-0.

As the Sharks were starting to get more of the ball, they were able to take advantage when Mawene Hiroti was able to pass their way out of trouble from their own and stretch the Warriors defence before scoring out wide. 

The Warriors extended their lead out to a converted try with a Metcalf penalty goal before the Sharks scored again through KL Iro. Nicho Hynes missed the conversion. The Sharks had a chance right before halftime as Braden Hamlin-Uele knocked on trying to gather a Braydon Trindall kick.

The second half was all one-way traffic with the Warriors dominating as they were able to score just a few minutes into the second half when James Fisher-Harris was able to score almost untouched under the posts. The visitors continued their dominance when Demitric Vaimauga was able to get over as he went straight through the middle to score.

The lead kept ticking up as Leka Halasima was able to chase through a kick and outjump Sione Katoa to score and after the conversion, the Warriors lead 30-12.

It was almost comically easy for the next two tries to the Warriors both coming to Chanel Harris-Tevita with the Warriors five-eighth throwing a dummy and luring three defenders into falling for it and then strolling through. Not too long later, CHT was sweating on an intercept and it seemed like everyone saw it coming bar Nicho Hynes who threw the pass straight to Harris-Tevita who raced away to score.

The victory for the Warriors moves them temporarily into second place ahead of the bye before a clash against what will be a weakened Panthers side in a fortnight whilst the Sharks who have conceded 40 points in consecutive games will hope to bounce back against the Dragons.