New South Wales Cup finals football has been locked in for the NZ Warriors after a commanding 42-10 win over Canterbury Bankstown at Shaun Johnson Stadium on Friday night.
It was fourth (Warriors) against fifth (Bulldogs), with the result moving the Warriors to 33 points with one round left.
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Other results have left them just one point behind the top-two sides, Canberra and North Sydney on 34, level with Newtown on 33 and two ahead of fifth-placed Penrith on 31, while the Bulldogs and Dragons are on 30 in a three-way battle for the fifth playoff spot.
All that remains for the Warriors now is whether they can secure a top-three spot and a second life for the finals when they play the Newtown Jets next weekend.
After their heartbreaking 22-28 loss to the Sea Eagles last week, the blowtorch was on the Warriors and they responded superbly against Bulldogs on Friday night.
While they conceded an early try, they quickly turned the momentum in their favour with an irresistible 10-minute three-try charge.
It was started by centre Moala Graham-Taufa scything through off a Taine Tuaupiki pass in the ninth minute, followed by wing Edward Kosi bulldozing across from a slick scrum move off a Tuaupiki pass in the 13th minute and centre Ali Leiataua tapping back a Paul Roache bomb for second rower Jacob Laban to score six minutes later.
That took them out to a 16-6 lead which became 22-6 with a fourth try coming six minutes from halftime when Tuaupiki threaded through a grubber for Taufa-Graham to seize for his second.
The Warriors maintained the rage after the break when Laban scored his second try in the 49th minute, ignited by a Zyon Maiu'u off load and a sharp incision by Graham-Taufa, to blow the margin out to 28-6.
The Bulldogs stemmed the flow with a second Jonathan Sua try but it was all Warriors over the last stanza, first through Tuaupiki pushing through another perfectly-weighted grubber for Setu Tu to hunt down to extend the scoreline to 32-10 with 17 minutes still to play.
Then standoff Ben Farr chimed in twice, the first when he handled twice, releasing Leiataua and Kosi on a raid down the left before backing up Kosi on the inside to cross for his first try and then added a second in the final minute.
One statistic after another - beyond the 42-10 scoreline - spelt out domination, with possession in the Warriors' favour 61 percent to 39 percent, completions 67 percent to 56 percent, metres gained reading an astounding 1760-927, post contact metres more than double 744-334, line breaks 8-2, missed tackles 20-68 and errors 9-16.
Tuaupiki made 143 metres from 22 runs, had three line break assists, four try assists and nine tackle breaks, while second rower Leka Halasima finished with a game-high 178 metres from 12 runs and the most tackle breaks (11).
Meanwhile, an outstanding comeback carried the NZ Warriors to one of their best wins of the season when they dismissed second-place Canterbury Bankstown 32-16 in Saturday’s Round 25 Jersey Flegg Cup (under-21) encounter at Go Media Stadium.
After being overpowered 36-10 by Manly Warringah in Sydney last week, the Warriors found themselves in deep trouble early in the match as the Bulldogs exploded out of the blocks with three tries in the opening 15 minutes.
Down 16-0, the signs weren’t encouraging on the scoreboard but the Warriors took that out of the equation, regrouped and fought their way into the game gradually.
There was just one try to show for it in the first half, centre Nganatatafu Vake scoring to enable the Warriors to go to the break 10 points adrift at 16-6.
But the contest changed complexion completely in the second spell, the Warriors grabbing two converted tries in the space of eight minutes through centre Alvin Chong Nee and Vake with his second to vault into an 18-16 lead.
Prop Harry Durbin followed with a try in the 57th minute before wingers Raphael Sio and Garry Tuilekutu completed an impressive half which saw the Warriors pile on 26 points in the second half alone and 32 unanswered points in all in the last 45 minutes of the game.
The win was the Warriors’ eighth of the season, lifting them to 21 points and enabling them to go ahead of Melbourne to take 11th spot on the ladder.
They play their final match of the season against fifth-placed Cronulla Sutherland at PointsBet Stadium in Sydney next Saturday.