Winger Brandon Norris grabbed a five-try haul to propel the One New Zealand Warriors to a commanding 40-6 win over the Wests Tigers in their round 19 Jersey Flegg Cup (under-21) win at Lidcombe Oval on Saturday.
The performance was an emphatic response following their last-start 22-30 loss to the Raiders leading into last weekend’s bye.
They went into the match on 20 points, four outside the top five and facing a Tigers side sitting fourth on the ladder five points ahead of them.
On the day the Warriors made a mockery of the relative rankings of the two teams, stitching together one of their most compelling displays of the season.
The prolific Norris revelled in the opportunities he had, starting the scoring and finishing it with an exclamation mark as he lifted his season’s tally to a remarkable 21 tries in 14 appearances, 13 of them in the last five games.
The first came seven minutes in courtesy of a cut-out pass from halfback Jack Thompson, Norris cruising over unopposed and then running around near the posts to dot down.
Match: Wests Tigers v Warriors
Round 19 -
home Team
Wests Tigers
5th Position
away Team
Warriors
7th Position
Venue: Lidcombe Oval, Sydney
Maui Winitana-Patelesio, switched from loose forward to start in the halves, had the second 10 minutes later and on the 20-minute mark a Bishop Neal off load put left winger Harry Tauafiafi over to stretch the lead to 16-0.
They immediately built on that advantage in the opening moments of the second half, Thompson lofting a bomb to the right and Norris, always an aerial threat, leapt to catch and score.
Within minutes the Warriors stretched the Tigers again, some dazzling off loading exposing them before a shift right saw Thompson and centre Caelys Putoko combining to give Norris a shot at the corner for his hat-trick. He finished it expertly as the Warriors maintained the rage.
Try number four came along a few minutes later, this time through a different route, Norris fed on the touchline by Putoko, chopping off his right foot and then scorching against the grain to cross to take the Warriors into the 30s.
The Tigers interrupted the flow with their only try of the day but normal service was resumed down a short side on the left when hooker Braelan Marsh, Thompson and Winitana-Patelesio opened a passage for centre Motu Pasikala to go over to open up a 36-6 lead.
With seconds to go there was no let-up, the ball coming right with Putoko poking through a grubber and Norris picking up brilliantly to score in the corner.
The Warriors have a much sterner challenge in prospect next Sunday when they host competition leader St George Illawarra at Trusts Stadium in Waitakere.
