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Fullback Jeremiah Lemana nabbed a hat-trick to catapult the One New Zealand Warriors into their second straight Harold Matthews Cup (under-17) grand final after a convincing 28-8 victory over South Sydney in Sunday’s Harold Matthews Cup preliminary final at Redfern Oval in Sydney.
After winning the premiership in their debut campaign last year, the Warriors will now defend the crown against Newcastle at Leichhardt Oval next Sunday after the Knights eliminated the Central Coast Roosters 26-20 in the other preliminary final.
Lemana had a field day scoring his team’s first, third and fifth tries.
In the fifth minute hooker Dreytin Marriott linked with halfback Alapati Soagia, Lemana running a hole expertly, then coming off his right to score.
Match: Warriors v Rabbitohs
Finals Week 3 -
home Team
Warriors
away Team
Rabbitohs
Venue: Redfern Oval, Sydney
After the Rabbitohs evened up, the Warriors’ second try was all about power right on halftime, dummy half Marriott skirting out left, dropping second rower Bishop Neal underneath with the big man steaming straight ahead through and over defenders to score to make it 10-4.
It was 10-8 soon after halftime with a second Feltham try but South Sydney wouldn’t score again as the Warriors took a grip on the contest.
The influential Marriott made a good surge from dummy half and two tackles later the champions were in strike mode again.
On a cleverly worked short side play, Soagia went out the back to Hinckley Ioka who off loaded inside to the electric Lemana, the fullback stepping off his left as he sliced and diced South Sydney’s defence on a run against the grain to score his second.
Leading 16-8 after 46 minutes, the Warriors were in again five minutes later, two strong carries by Ioka and Neal taking them within three metres of the South Sydney line before Marriott fed Ronan Byford who drove between defenders to score under the crossbar.
At 22-8 with nine minutes to play the Warriors were in sniffing distance of the grand final and then made certain of it with an exhilarating try from long range.
South Sydney tried a chip kick over the line but an alert Ioka gathered the ball and played it quickly. Centre Parekaahu Keepa popped up a pass from dummy half, Lemana hitting it at pace, burning off four defenders and leaving the rest behind on a 70-metre run to the line. Raising his left arm triumphantly just before he touched down behind the posts, he was absolutely swamped by teammates as a convincing victory was nailed.
