THEY boast just one post-season appearance between them in the past seven seasons, but the Dragons and Warriors turned on what looked every bit a finals clash at Mt Smart Stadium on Friday night.
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The hosts ultimately handed the Dragons their first defeat of the season, 20-12, but both sides produced a contest befitting the two form teams of the competition over the opening seven rounds.
After suffering their first loss to the Broncos at home last week, the Warriors built their sixth win of the season on defence, keeping the visitors scoreless through the first 50 minutes.
In a tight contest, the match swung on a single moment in the 64th minute when Dragons centre Tim Lafai strolled across for what looked like a match-leveling try after intercepting a wayward pass from Warriors winger Ken Maumalo.
It came after Roger Tuivasa Sheck produced a brilliant defusal of a Ben Hunt banana kick before off-loading to Maumalo, who gifted Lafai a saloon passage to the line.
Referee Ben Cummins sent it upstairs as a try before multiple replays showed James Graham deflected the ball into Tuivasa-Sheck as he reeled in Hunt’s kick.
Gareth Widdop would have had a kick from in front to take a 12-10 lead but it proved a 12-point swing when Isaac Luke kicked a 40-20 and then dived over from close range in the very next set to take a 16-6 lead.
The Dragons pegged it back to four when Tariq Sims crashed over with seven minutes to play before Isaiah Papali’i sealed the win with a four-pointer four minutes from time.
“That was probably the biggest turning point of the game,” Dragons coach Paul McGregor said of the Lafai no-try.
“We felt we were starting to win back that advantage but, we made the opposition miss 64 tackles, you usually win. We didn’t which shows how good their numbers in the picture were and how they were turning up for each other.
“They gave away a lot of penalties and defended their line well. We had three one-on-one misses that led to tries and we created five opportunities we didn’t finish. They were good enough to not let us finish them.
“Their line-speed was incredible, they’re scramble was as good as I’ve seen from any team this year. Both teams had a good attitude tonight, one team had to lose and unfortunately it was us.”
The Dragons had a mountain of first-half possession but couldn’t turn their 63 per cent possession into points as they trailed 10-0 at halftime on the back of tries to Mason Lino and Anthony Gelling.
They were also on the right side of a 10-3 first-half penalty count that prompted referee Ben Cummins to twice warn skipper Tuivasa-Sheck about “cynical” penalties.
His patience ran out 55 seconds before the break, dispatching Blake Green to the sin-bin but it had no impact on the scoreboard with the Dragons held scoreless through 40 minutes for the first time this season.
Hunt finally got some points for the Dragons when he left five defenders in his wake on a weaving run to the line eight minutes after the resumption.
The Dragons looked to have leveled up through Lafai 14 minutes later only to be denied by the bunker, with Luke’s two acts of brilliance in the next set swinging momentum back to the hosts.