Gritty, scrappy, ugly, lucky…whatever adjective you use to describe the Warriors’ 14-10 win over a concussion-hit St George Illawarra side in Auckland last Friday, it can’t detract from the value of two competition points.
The Warriors were in early trouble as the Dragons raced to a 10-0 lead after 20 minutes, but the visitors lost three middle forwards to failed HIAs inside half an hour.
Chanel Harris belatedly put the Warriors on the board before halftime and a pair of Adam Pompey tries got them over the line in a tense thriller.
Enjoying a near-even share of possession, the Warriors had their noses in front in terms of run metres (1,855 to 1,766) and post-contact metres (718 to 646). But the Dragons had a better average set distance (43.07 to 41.24), made five line-breaks to three and 35 tackle-breaks to 22, and committed less errors (seven to the Warriors’ 10).
The penalty count finished 4-all, but the Dragons conceded eight six-agains to the Warriors’ five.
The result pitched the Warriors back into fourth spot thanks to Penrith’s loss to Melbourne on Thursday. With remaining clashes against bottom-half teams Gold Coast, Parramatta and Manly, just the fourth top-four finish in the club’s history is in their hands.
Meanwhile, the Warriors’ 13th win of 2025 guarantees they will wind up with a winning regular-season record for only the 10th time in 31 years in the premiership – and just the third time in the past 14 seasons.
Saints go marching out
The Warriors have wrestled back control of their rivalry with the Dragons, now winning four of the team’s last five encounters – and nine of the last 13 since the start of 2018.
It’s a far cry from the dominance the St George Illawarra joint venture enjoyed against the Warriors from their 1999 inception until 2017, when the Saints won 21 of the first 26 encounters.
Highs and low-scorers
The Warriors have now won three matches in 2025 while scoring less than 16 points, having also grafted out low-scoring victories over Sydney Roosters at home (14-6) and St George Illawarra in Wollongong (15-14).
To put that in further context, the Warriors didn’t win any games from 2018-24 while scoring less than 16 points.
The club won two games with tallies of less than 16 points in 2001, 2008, 2009 and – in consecutive weeks – 2010.
Meanwhile, if the Warriors concede less than 33 points in their remaining games against the Titans, Eels and Sea Eagles, it will be their best regular-season defensive performance since 2011.
Tryscoring race going down to the wire
Adam Pompey’s late match-winning double and Chanel Harris-Tavita’s first-half four-pointer has opened the battle to be the Warriors’ 2025 try king right up.
Pompey, CHT and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and still trailing rookie forward sensation Leka Halasima.
WARRIORS TOP TRYSCORERS 2025
10 – Leka Halasima
9 – Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
9 – Adam Pompey
8 – Chanel Harris-Tavita
Pompey has motored past his previous career-best season tally of five, while Harris-Tavita has doubled his. If RTS and Pompey can manage one more try this year and CHT bags another two, it would represent the second-most Warriors to cross for 10-plus tries in a season in the club’s history.
A whopping six players reached the mark in 2001: Henry Fa’afili (14), Francis Meli (11), Clinton Toopi (11), Stacey Jones (10), Logan Swann (10) and Motu Tony (10). Three Warriors notched double-figure tallies in 1995, 2003, 2007 and every season from 2011-16.
All that glitters
Lining up against the bottom-placed team in the NRL would usually be a godsend for a side in the Warriors’ precarious top-four position, but a recent bogey against hapless Gold Coast Titans will make fans more than a little nervous ahead of Saturday’s road trip.
The Titans have won six of their last seven against the Warriors, including a 24-16 boilover at Mount Smart in Round 21. Meanwhile, there’s the none-too-small matter of the club record 66-6 thrashing the Titans meted out when the clubs met at Cbus Super Stadium last June.
Alofiana Khan-Pereira, who is rumoured to be in the Warriors’ sights, scored a club-record-equalling four tries for the Titans that day but has been struggling to get a run in Des Hasler’s line-up.
Number crunchers
A host of Warriors stood tall stats-wise in Friday’s grind:
- Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was a metre-eating goliath again, running for 267 metres (105 post-contact) from 24 carries and producing a try assist.
- Dallin Watene-Zelezniak enjoyed arguably his best game of a chequered season despite not getting on the scoresheet, racking up 172 metres (71 post-contact) from 18 runs.
- Adam Pompey complemented his two-try performance with 170 metres (73 post-contact) from 15 runs – one metre shy of his season high – after a couple of early defensive gaffes.
- Though his outing was soured by a three-match crusher tackle suspension, Jackson Ford was a workhorse up front yet again with 17 runs for 154 metres and a massive team-high 53 tackles.
- Erin Clark was typically industrious at lock, notching 40 tackles and 12 runs for 130 metres.
