The Warriors will have to take the long way to the NRL grand final after the Dolphins came from behind to beat them 26-16 in their qualifying final at Go Media Stadium in Auckland on Saturday night.
The home side led 16-8 with 25 minutes to play and a home preliminary final within reach. The Dolphins then scored three converted tries in the last 20 minutes, and Jack Bostock’s late try sent some of the 26,131 crowd towards the exits, the NZ Herald reported. Instead of a week off, Andrew Webster’s team must now beat the Newcastle Knights in a sudden-death semi-final in Auckland next weekend.
It was the Dolphins’ first NRL finals match, and the win earns the Brisbane club a home preliminary final at Lang Park in a fortnight. The result also ended a six-game winning run for the Warriors and was the first time this season they had lost a game after leading at halftime, RNZ reported.
Fullback Taine Tuaupiki scored all 16 of the Warriors’ points. He spun out of a tackle near the line for the only home try, converted it and kicked five penalty goals from five attempts. The Warriors led 12-8 at the break. The Dolphins scored four tries, all converted by wing Jamayne Isaako. Herbie Farnworth, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Jack Bostock crossed in the final quarter, and the ABC reported that Tabuai-Fidow started and finished a length-of-the-field try that put the visitors ahead for the first time in the match.
The first half was chaotic. Centre Adam Pompey was sin-binned for a no-arms shoulder tackle, and second-rower Kurt Capewell followed him for sparking a melee just before halftime. Dolphins wing Selwyn Cobbo was sent to the bin in the same incident, which began when Warriors forward Jackson Ford was dumped in a tipping tackle. For a spell the Warriors were down to 11 players. They had already lost a player before kick-off, when centre Leka Halasima hurt his hamstring in the warm-up and Pompey was promoted to the starting side.
The Warriors’ habit of kicking for goal rather than pushing for tries near the Dolphins’ line raised eyebrows, and Webster defended it after the match. “We didn’t get the opportunity to get a flow in to our attack. That’s the negative side of taking the penalty goals, but to stretch them out to eight points, we had to do it. It’s a no-brainer,” he said at his post-match press conference. “The negative side is there, but at the same time, the eight-point gap is what every team should take.”
Webster said his team were pleased at halftime but went looking for contact in the second half. He said they “were trying so hard and they were bouncing off us”. “We were chasing contact and collision, and they were pinballing. We have to be more efficient next week,” he said.
Tuaupiki said the loss was hard to take. “It was tough, chaotic, and just lots of scramble, lots of effort from both teams,” he told the NZ Herald. “Gutted to be on the losing side of it.” He pointed to Tabuai-Fidow’s long-range try. “They just got some freaks in their team that can just do things like what Hammer done off that long kick return. And good on them, but we need to be better.”
For the Dolphins it was a landmark night. “It is big. It is massive for everyone involved at the club,” coach Kristian Woolf told the ABC. “The club has done such a good job over the last four years in every department, but the blokes that deserve the credit are the players with the way they played tonight and the bravery they showed under pressure.”
The Warriors also have injury worries. Halasima is out of next weekend’s match and a long shot to play any part in the finals, according to the Herald. “He felt it in the first stride out and he couldn’t go,” Webster said. Ford limped off in the first half after the tipping tackle and, although he returned, Webster said “it doesn’t look good” for him.
The Knights arrive off a finals win of their own. They knocked South Sydney out of the finals with a 20-10 win in Sydney on Friday night, the ABC reported. The Warriors have beaten Newcastle twice this season, but the Knights led by as many as 16 points in last month’s meeting before the Warriors rallied, even though Newcastle had lost Jacob Saifiti to a send-off for a dangerous shoulder charge.
There is a recent precedent the Warriors can draw on. In 2023 they lost their qualifying final to Penrith 32-6, then came home and beat the Knights 40-10 in a semi-final in front of 26,083 people at Mount Smart, before losing to Brisbane in the preliminary final, according to the club’s 2023 season record. Last year’s campaign ended at the first hurdle, when Penrith won an elimination final 24-8 in Auckland.
This season the Warriors won 18 of their 24 regular-season games to finish second, behind Penrith. It is the club’s 11th finals campaign since it entered the competition in 1995. The Warriors reached grand finals in 2002 and 2011 but lost both, and they are still chasing a first premiership, according to the club’s history. To win it this year they now need three straight finals wins.
Webster sounded more upbeat than the scoreline might suggest. “There’s another path for us and it’s not the direct path, it’s going to be a different one,” he said. “We’ve got to move on quick, we’ve got to take the lessons, we’ve got to get better.” He added, “We’re one win away from being just where we were, and that’s the grand final qualifier.”
Halfback Te Maire Martin put it more simply. “It’s still the same goal to get to the GF, it’s just a different path now.”
Can the Warriors bounce back against the Knights the way they did in 2023, or has the Dolphins defeat exposed something deeper? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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