The Warriors come from the field after losing their round seven NRL match between the North Queensland Cowboys and the New Zealand Warriors. Photo / Getty Images.
Warriors 24
Cowboys 28
The Warriors have lost 28-24 to the Cowboys, after holding the lead for almost the whole match.
On their long journey back from North Queensland on Sunday, the Warriors will be wondering quite how they managed to lose this game.
They led for 78 minutes, before Jake Granville dived over from close range to take the two points.
It was the perfect result for Jonathan Thurston, who celebrated his 250th NRL game with an unlikely victory.
The Warriors will be bitterly disappointed they allowed Granville to score twice in the last ten minutes from dummy half. It's the sort of thing that shouldn't happen once - and never happens twice - especially with the match on the line.
It's a performance that's hard to sum up. The Warriors played some superb attacking football and also exhibited plenty of commitment on defence, against a team that was coming up off a comprehensive victory over the Rabbitohs.
But - and this is the big 'but' - they couldn't stop making errors. How good could this team be when they can iron the mistakes out of their game?
Some are down to inexperience, as the otherwise impressive Solomone Kata dropped the ball over the try line, and Tui Lolohea split a huge Jonathan Thurston bomb under his own goal posts. Other were less excusable and at least three of the errors led directly to Cowboys tries.
It continued a pattern of previous weeks - where the Warriors have averaged considerably more mistakes than their opposition. Sometimes they have got away with it but a 66 percent completion rate and a 12-5 error count proved fatal last night.
It was a curious first half. In front of a crowd ready to celebrate Thurston's milestone, the Warriors rocketed to 12-0 lead within the first nine minutes. They took the lead through Konrad Hurrell, who scored his first try of the season after the visitors regathered an innocuous Shaun Johnson kick.
Johnathan Wright extended their advantage soon afterwards, after an impressive set play with Tui Lolohea changing the direction of attack and Johnson creating space for the winger. The Warriors had all the early momentum - aided by the Cowboys putting consecutive kick offs over the dead ball line.
The homes side were always going to back in the game but they were helped by the Warriors, who barely completed a set in the 20 minutes before half time. Before last night the second quarter had been their best period - they had scored more points during that time than any other NRL team - but in Townsville it became their worst.
They delivered a stream of handling errors to gift the Cowboys territory, and also managed to a kick out on the full. The Cowboys capitalised, with tries to Jake Granville and Kane Linnett. A long range Hurrell break - somewhat against the run of play - led to a Solomone Kata on the stroke of halftime.
The Warriors continued their mix of sweet and sour in the second half. Vatuvei crossed for his 141st career try, edging ahead of Nigel Vagana to become the leading New Zealand tryscorer in the NRL. The veteran winger was set up by a superb ball from Thomas Leuluai, who drew the defence before bringing the 'Beast' thundering onto the ball. But costly drops at both end of the field - by Kata on attack and Lolohea on defence - kept the Cowboys in the game ahead of Granville's late strikes.
Cowboys 28 (J. Granville 3, K. Linnett, L. Coote tries; J. Thurston 4 goals)
Warriors 24 (K. Hurrell, J. Wright, S. Kata, M. Vatuvei tries; S. Johnson 4 goals)
Halftime: 10-16
The two-time Olympic gold medallist joins the renewed franchise.