A SHAUN Johnson penalty goal with less than a minute on the clock has given the Warriors a 14-13 win over the Roosters in Auckland.
Down 13-12 and throwing the ball around aimlessly as the seconds ticked away, the Warriors earned a crucial penalty from Mitchell Pearce being offside. Johnson, who signed a new two-year deal this week, kicked the resulting penalty from 20m out to hand his side its first NRL win in three matches.
It was especially unfortunate for the Roosters playmaker, who had played well at Mount Smart Stadium and coolly given his side a one-point lead with a field goal four minutes earlier.
The Warriors now move up a spot on the ladder to 11th, while the Roosters remain in fifth.
The Warriors hit the ground running on home turf and took the lead within six minutes.
Capitalising on an earlier Roosters knock-on, Issac Luke laid on a quick play-the-ball for prop James Gavet, who muscled his way over from close range. In what was a plodding first 40 minutes, the Bondi boys struggled to produce attacking opportunities and made just the single first-half line break. Boyd Cordner spilled a grubber kick over the line in a rare foray into Warriors territory as both sides slugged it out through the middle.
The Warriors had the last laugh.Source:Getty Images
The Warriors shot themselves in the foot soon after, gifting a try to Joseph Manu after a Shaun Johnson pass to no-one was collected by Shaun Kenny-Dowall, before the Kiwis halfback made amends with a wily one-on-one strip on Daniel Tupou.
The steal gave the Warriors prime field position and a one-man advantage after Tupou’s sin-binning for slowing the resulting play-the-ball, and quickly resulted in a try through David Fusitu’a on the right and a 12-4 half-time scoreline.
The game resumed in a similar fashion in the second stanza, before a clever piece of Kenny-Dowall anticipation nabbed the Kiwi an intercept try in the 48th minute.
A penalty goal then tied the scores with 25 minutes remaining, where they remained until Pearce’s field goal.
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