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Warriors down hapless Bulldogs in NRL

3 minute read

The Warriors remain a mathematical chance of making the NRL finals after recording a 20-14 comeback win over Canterbury.

Coach TODD PAYTEN.
Coach TODD PAYTEN. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

The F-word is banned at the Warriors, even after Todd Payten's resilient outfit revived their NRL finals hopes with a gritty 20-14 comeback win over Canterbury.

The Warriors dragged themselves to within four competition points of the top eight with three unanswered second-half tries at ANZ Stadium.

Mathematically, the New Zealand club is back in the hunt after eighth-placed Cronulla's heavy loss to Penrith on Friday night.

But they still must win their five remaining games and hope other results go their way.

"I'm not thinking about that at all. Looking at four, five weeks down the track is almost suicidal," interim coach Payten said.

Sunday's result left the Bulldogs rooted to the bottom of the ladder and exasperated Steve Georgallis threatening to wield the axe in a desperate bid to avoid the wooden spoon.

They say losing's a habit and it certainly is for Canterbury, who have forgotten how to win.

Winless since upsetting Newcastle in round 11, the Dogs have now lost six games this season by six points or less, including four of their past five.

"Bitterly disappointing," interim coach Georgallis said.

"They hung in that game, the Warriors, and we handed it to them in the second half.

"Poor defensive reads, poor kicking game, a lack of direction.

"We've got five weeks left to get off the bottom of the table and I'm going to pick a team that's going to try to do that.

"There'll be a few changes this week."

The writing looked on the wall from the kick-off when Nick Meaney booted the ball out on the full to gift the Warriors a penalty.

But the Bulldogs rebounded brilliantly with two dazzling tries in the opening quarter of an hour.

First Meaney atoned for his early error when he dived over in the left-hand corner after receiving a clever flick pass from Tim Lafai.

Then Jeremy Marshall-King split the Warriors defence to put Kieran Foran over untouched - and suddenly it was 10-0.

Jack Murchie put the Warriors back into the contest with a 29th-minute try, only for Will Hopoate to bag Canterbury's third soon after halftime.

But two tries in two minutes from the Warriors, to Adam Pompey and then Murchie, turned the game on its head.

The bunker denied livewire halfback Paul Turner, who was excellent on debut, twice in three minutes as the Warriors continued to dominate.

But, try as they might, there was no coming back for Canterbury when skipper Roger Tuivasa-Sheck strode over in the 61st minute for the Warriors' match winner.

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