Two tries conceded in the last five minutes denied the One New Zealand Warriors a second straight win when they went down 16-26 to Canterbury Bankstown in their fifth-round Harold Matthews Cup (under-17) encounter at Hammondville Oval in Sydney on Saturday.
Boosted by their first win of the season over the Central Coast Roosters, the Warriors were in the contest all the way with the Bulldogs, working their way to a 16-14 lead through winger Chris Sau’s spectacular finish in the right-hand corner.
They stayed in the grind but couldn’t prevent Canterbury Bankstown hitting the front 20-16 in the 55th-minute of the 60-minute match.
The Warriors went in search of a match winner with two minutes to play, going right from a scrum near halfway only for Canterbury Bankstown winger Riley Schafer, who had jammed in, getting a hand to an intended cut-out ball for the unmarked Sau. Schafer popped the ball up, regathered and hared 50 metres for the match-sealing try.
Earlier the Warriors found themselves trailing 0-10 inside 10 minutes but were just 6-10 adrift at halftime after the electric Kayce Perese-Sukroo jazzed over for another dummy half try.
They went ahead 12-10 in the opening seconds of the second half through fullback Kaian Olsen who split the Bulldogs’ defensive line from 60 metres out and went all the way for a brilliant try.
Match: Bulldogs v Warriors
Round 5 -
home Team
Bulldogs
away Team
Warriors
Venue: Hammondville Oval, Sydney
Nine minutes later the home side was back ahead 14-12 through a wonderfully worked play from an attacking midfield scrum, halfback Keanu Simpson linking with Olsen sweeping around outside him then feeding Sau 15 metres out. He had it all to do with little room to work with but got the ball down superbly.
The lead would last seven minutes before the Bulldogs took advantage.
The Warriors, now lying 10th, are back in Sydney next Sunday to face the 16th-placed Balmain Tigers.
