Gerard Beale reacts after a try is disallowed. Photo / Photosport
Eels 24
Warriors 18
The Warriors' fairytale bid to make the NRL playoffs is hanging by the thinnest of threads, but what a way to go down.
They were beaten 24-18 by the Eels on the Central Coast, in a fabulous and sometimes fiery contest which contained one Warriors try that will never be forgotten and a quickly condemned sin-binning decision against them.
In the final analysis though, it will be bitter disappointment for the Warriors, who have been on an unlikely late-season roll.
A gripping game was decided in the 79th minute, when Warriors centre Peta Hiku was shoved into touch while desperately trying to score in the corner.
The Warriors - with a very poor points differential - are now four points adrift of the eighth-placed Sharks, with three games remaining.
They will need to beat the Sharks, Raiders and Sea Eagles, to make the playoffs. They will also need the Sharks to lose their other two games to the Roosters and Raiders. The odds don't look great, but not impossible.
Wests Tigers are also in the mix, having jumped ahead of the Warriors into ninth on the ladder, also on 14 points but with a significantly better points differential.
The killer try came from the top-four chasing Eels in the 65th minute, when the Warriors failed to challenge Waqa Blake in the air from a Mitchell Moses cross-kick. This gave the Eels a 22-12 advantage.
But a clever kick from wing Gerard Beale to set up Hayze Perham's first try in first grade kept the game alive, helped by a sideline conversion from Chanel Harris-Tavita, already a central character in this thriller.
This was a stunning game, fiery at times, particularly when opposing locks Jazz Tevaga and Nathan Brown came together. It included a bizarre sin-binning of Tevaga, which one veteran observer called the worst sin binning ever.
But a two-try burst by the Warriors with halftime approaching is what great sport is all about.
Down 16-0 in the 35th minute, the Warriors conjured up a genuine miracle try on the last play, a series of desperation passes from side to side giving Kodi Nikorima the chance to grubber kick behind the line, the final Hail Mary pass coming from Hiku.
Harris-Tavita beat the stumbling defence for a touchdown that will live long in the memory and on the highlight reels, and will be hard to beat as the try of the year.
Just 90 seconds later Harris-Tavita was scoring again, after a fantastic burst by Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, which started near his tryline.
The Eels had been given a massive leg-up from the match officials, when Tevaga was sin-binned in the 17th minute for a punch in the tackle on his opposite Brown.
It was at most a stiff push to the chin, a fairly everyday NRL act, and while not strictly legal act it would normally draw a penalty at most.
But after a light scuffle Tevaga was dismissed, with the Eels leading 4-0.
The sin binning decision was greeted with commentator derision, veteran caller Andrew Voss describing it as "the worst sin-binning I've ever seen".
The Eels had been making good inroads through the middle from the kickoff and, down to 12 men, they looked ripe for the picking. And while Tevaga was absent, the Eels raced to a 16-0 lead through two more tries.
The first was a brilliantly worked effort sparked by Clint Gutherson through the middle. And then wing Blake Ferguson broke his long drought, as the Warriors defence failed to cope with a kick.
When Tevaga returned, he was greeted with a big Brown tackle. Game on, with the tide in the Eels' favour.
At that point, it looked as though the Warriors' bid to make the top eight was about to peter out until the most exhilarating 90 seconds of NRL action you will ever see brought the two extraordinary Harris-Tavita tries.
Eels 24 (Maika Sivo, Jai Field, Blake Ferguson, Waqa Blake tries; Mitchell Moses 3 cons, pen)
Warriors 18 (Chanel Harris-Tavita 2, Hayze Perham tries; Harris-Tavita 3 cons)
Halftime: 16-12
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