The NRL has admitted the New Zealand Warriors should have been given a penalty in the final minute of their 12-10 semi-final loss to the Newcastle Knights at Eden Park, a call that would have given them a shot at goal to level the scores and force extra time.
AAP reported on Monday that NRL officials confirmed Knights prop Tyson Frizell should have been penalised for an escort as Warriors centre Leka Halasima chased a high kick in the 79th minute. Had the penalty been awarded, the Warriors would have had a kick from just to the side of the posts to make it 12-12.
Referee Ashley Klein is now set to miss the preliminary finals this weekend. 1News reported, citing the Sydney Morning Herald, that Klein will not be selected for either preliminary final but remains in contention to referee the grand final. The Warriors contacted the NRL on Monday morning to discuss several contentious calls, particularly the Frizell incident.
The admission is cold comfort for Andrew Webster’s side. Sunday night’s loss ended a season in which the Warriors won 18 of their 24 regular-season games, the most in the club’s history, and finished second on the ladder, level on points with minor premiers Penrith. They lost their qualifying final 26-16 to the Dolphins the weekend before, and the defeat by Newcastle means they have gone out of the finals in straight sets.
The Knights, who won the wooden spoon in 2025, were the better side early. Winger Dom Young had a try ruled out for a forward pass from Dane Gagai, and five-eighth Fletcher Sharpe had another chalked off for a knock-on in the lead-up.
Halasima, back from a hamstring injury, put the Warriors ahead in the 12th minute. The home side had most of the ball and territory through the first half, and RNZ reported they broke 36 tackles to Newcastle’s 19 before the break. But against the run of play, Knights centre Bradman Best burst through the Warriors’ right edge in the 29th minute and found Sharpe on his inside, and the score was 6-6 at halftime.
Early in the second half Francis Manuleleua jolted the ball loose from Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, and on the next play Gagai sent Young over. Sandon Smith converted to give Newcastle a six-point lead.
Centre Ali Leiataua had a try ruled out for obstruction, and winger Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was lost after failing a head injury assessment. Halasima then scored a remarkable second try in the 70th minute, contorting his body around the corner post to ground the ball, but fullback Taine Tuaupiki missed the sideline conversion and soon went off for a head injury assessment himself.
The last ten minutes turned on three decisions, all of which went Newcastle’s way. In the 73rd minute a dropped pass from Kalyn Ponga to Best was ruled off the thumb of Leiataua after a long look by Bunker official Chris Butler. Three minutes later, the Bunker upheld a strip penalty against halfback Te Maire Martin, rejecting the Warriors’ view that Knights winger Greg Marzhew had simply lost the ball. Then came the Frizell non-call.
Webster told reporters after the game that the Bunker reviews had left him angry. “It was frustrating. I feel like they were trying to find ways to take it off us,” he said, according to the ABC.
On the kick chase he was blunter. “The last one, and two points would have drawn the game, he’s [Tyson Frizell] going across Leka [Halasima], pretending to try and catch the ball, which they [NRL] have told us you can’t do.”
Webster did not blame the officials for the result, though. “We created plenty of momentum, plenty of good looks, but we missed two poor tackles that led to tries,” he said. “We had a good opportunity to really dominate, and we didn’t.”
Martin told the host broadcaster the defeat stung. “We’d like a few moments back, but that one hurts,” he said. “Just a bit unfortunate we didn’t play the footy we wanted to play in the last two weeks.”
Knights coach Justin Holbrook said he believed the officials got the late calls right and that he was not aware of any controversy over the kick chase. Newcastle fullback Ponga passed his head injury assessment and will be available for next Sunday’s preliminary final against Penrith in Sydney, the club’s first since 2013. “Just proud. I feel like crying. Everyone probably counted us out five or six weeks ago,” Ponga said.
The record crowd of 48,511, the biggest home crowd in Warriors history, turned on Klein and his team at full-time. Footage showed bottles, cups and rubbish being thrown as the officials were escorted from the field by security, and the NRL said it had launched an investigation into possible breaches of the spectators’ code of conduct.
Former Warriors halfback Shaun Johnson called the behaviour “embarrassing”, saying there was “just no need for it”. He also defended the referee’s night. “Ashley Klein has probably refereed the best game of rugby league I have seen in a long time tonight,” Johnson said, 1News reported. “He didn’t make the game about him. He let the players come and play and they dictated the outcome.”
Co-captain Mitch Barnett played his last game for the club before joining the Brisbane Broncos next season, but RNZ reported most of the squad will return in 2027. They will carry a campaign of club records in wins, points scored and crowds, and a second straight summer of wondering what might have been.
For a closer look at the season that got them here, see our data feature on the Warriors 2026 regular season in numbers, which found every one of their 18 wins came in games where they out-gained the opposition in run metres.
Should the NRL have done more than drop a referee after admitting the error, or were the Warriors beaten by their own mistakes? 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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