View photosKEY POINTS:
Justice! The Warriors were repaid for some of the refereeing sins of old and of yesterday when they ran in two tries in the last three minutes to beat Souths.
It was a cracker of a game, with both sides taking intercept tries, both scoring three times, both being denied another three tries - and with both sides capable of claiming they were robbed at various times.
The new ruling on obstruction puzzles and frustrates many. And when Nathan Fien was denied what appeared to be a legitimate try under the bar midway through the first half with the Warriors up 8-0 and having already been denied another touchdown, it seemed the plays were not going to run their way.
When Souths fluked a try in the 68th minute, that seemed confirmed.
Jeremy Smith kicked on the last tackle, David Peachey regathered and kicked the ball again and David Fa'alogo touched down.
Video ref Chris Ward had been busy all day. Souths part-owner Russell Crowe led the crowd in a slow clap, Ward deliberated again and again, and Crowe got the result he wanted.
The Warriors were out on their feet.
The Warriors of old would have folded at that point. Instead they muscled up and picked up the pace of a game that had been stalled by numerous penalties.
Captain Steve Price was, as usual, magnificent and it was his offload that sent fullback Wade McKinnon away for 60m of stepping to score under the posts at 77 minutes. It was also Price's pep-talk that calmed McKinnon down when he was more focused on debating the ref's calls than he was the game.
The Warriors played smart, played with patience and worked their way back to the Souths' line.
Five-eighth Michael Witt, who also had a strong game, chipped to the right corner for Todd Byrne and with 30 seconds to go the winger grounded the ball and was then subjected to a soccer-style love-in.
That was measure of the relief the Warriors felt. The measure of their effort was in the 344 tackles they made to their opponents' 272, and the measure of the intensity of the tackling came with two of the biggest men on the field, the Rabbitohs' Roy Asotasi and the Warriors' Manu Vatuvei, leaving early with injury.
The Warriors started with good sets of six early on and a more enthusiastic defence. At eight minutes halfback Grant Rovelli took an intercept off Joe Williams' pass and ran 80m untouched.
And because they were playing at the right end of the field Tony Martin was able to goal from a penalty. They dominated the first 20 minutes but Souths took over the momentum after the visitors were twice denied by the video ref.
The second of these was incomprehensible and appears to now rule out the traditional run-around move if there are any decoy runners anywhere within cooee.
Nathan Fien ran from dummy-half inside Souths' 10m, passed to Steve Price who turned his back to the defence, attracted all the nearby tacklers and handed on to Fien to dive under the posts.
Ward ruled that other players were impeded.
But those others had no chance of getting near Fien, who later said he was sure he had scored.
Souths had offered easily-covered kicks from Smith early on but found accuracy when they went to Williams as the game wore on.
A turnover from a strip allowed them to work the ball side-to-side before putting Nigel Vagana in at the right corner.
The Warriors opened the second half well, Ruben Wiki getting within a hair's breadth of the line. Penalties flowed freely as both sides slowed the play-the-ball as and when it suited.
Wing Nathan Merritt took an intercept and went 80m untouched to score, Souths taking the lead for the first time in the 61st minute. Then followed the unbelievable finish. A 3.30am start at the airport on Saturday for an afternoon game in North Sydney proved too much for the Auckland Lions, who collapsed 46-10 to the Bears.
Jerome Ropati and Louis Anderson played after injury lay-offs and should be available for selection for the Warriors next weekend.
NZ Warriors: G. Rovelli, W. McKinnon, T. Byrne tries; T. Martin 3 goals.
Souths Rabbitohs: N. Vagana, N. Merritt, D. Fa'alogo tries; J. Williams 2 goals. H/T Warriors 8-4.
