Warriors 26
Sea Eagles 24
The Warriors' odds with the bookies will shorten markedly after they twice came from behind yesterday to dump the world club champions and NRL title holders the Sea Eagles.
One man can't win a game but the Warriors may not have won without the smarts and expertise of veteran Stacey Jones, who engineered tries for Brent Tate with 11 minutes to go to bring the gap in to 24-20, then for Jerome Ropati at the end.
"I was blowing a bit at the end there, we were just hanging in towards the end," Jones said.
There was some expert use of the interchange by coach Ivan Cleary in the heat at Brookvale Oval yesterday and there was superb leadership from their captain Steve Price, who again delivered the most metres for a forward.
He also delivered a cut-out pass to wing Manu Vatuvei, from a blindside set play that he'd planned and fantasised about for years, and it worked to bring the Warriors back to 10-10 after the home side scored at seven and 12 minutes for a 10-0 lead.
"We made it hard for ourselves early on but the determination was there," Price said.
"We had some things go against us, we did some silly things at times but we showed that when we stick to the game plan we can score tries. There's a lot more threat across the field this year. We just have to learn when to use it - we used it at the right time sometimes today," Price said.
The Warriors have never liked the refereeing of Shayne Hayne. Yesterday, they were penalised twice before Manly wing Michael Bani scored in the seventh minute and again before centre Jamie Lyon went in at 12 minutes.
The Eagles had control of the game, they had 10 sets while the Warriors had three in the first 20 minutes thanks to a five-one penalty count.
Joel Moon's long-kicking game kept them in it territory-wise. The penalty count settled to seven-six.
Then Nathan Fien combined with Jacob Lillyman to put Tate in for the first of his double. His brother-in-law the skipper set up Vatuvei and followed that up with an off-load near the posts to send new prop Jesse Royal in and it was 16-10 lead at the break.
The Warriors conceded 10 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half, bench prop Adam Cuthbertson awarded the benefit of the doubt when the ball slipped free then Lyon scoring with a 10-metre stumble to the line after Bani outpaced Vatuvei.
Jones, aged 32 and playing his first NRL game since 2005, shook the Eagles within minutes of coming on with a dab at the line that put Fien across but without control of the ball, the video referee ruling out points. Then he showed his real class with a chip and regather, the strike weapon Wade McKinnon looming up on his left. The defence including Eagles fullback Michael Robertson covered McKinnon as Jones dummied and went right to send Tate away.
"I saw Robertson coming - Wade caught the play," Jones said.
At 74 minutes Jones produced a last-tackle kick that resulted in Robertson being held in goal, delivering a repeat set. The team played Jones into position perfectly for another cross-field shot and Vatuvei jumped over Robertson to bat the ball back to Jerome Ropati to score to make it 24-all. Denan Kemp kicked the goal from the sideline.
Kemp's kick to win was symbolic of the effort all round, said Price. Of Jones: "It's like riding a bike. He's probably a bit tired but he came up with the plays we needed when we needed them."
