The Warriors’ remarkable mid-season NRL revival continued on Sunday night with a stunning upset of the high-flying Sydney Roosters.
Since their 56-point record loss to Penrith last month, Matthew Elliott’s men have won four on the trot and claimed their biggest scalp yet with a 23-12 defeat of the Roosters.
The Warriors took the lead with a terrific 85-metre try to lively fullback Glen Fisiiahi with 20 minutes to go.
Popular winger Manu Vatuvei iced the game with 10 minutes to play, when he scampered 90 metres after picking up a Shaun Kenny-Dowall grubber.
It was a frustrating loss for the Roosters, who wasted another top-shelf performance from star back-rower Sonny Bill Williams.
Williams sparked a two-try blitz in the final five minutes of the first half to give the home side a two-point halftime lead.
Trailing 10-nil, Williams set up the best non-try of the year when he broke the line and found James Maloney in support.
Maloney gave the ball to Anthony Minichiello but scrambling Warriors defence forced him to throw one last pass – and the ball travelled forward to Mitchell Aubusson.
To say the crowd of 11,040 was unimpressed would be an understatement.
But they stood and cheered two minutes later when Minichiello backed up a monster break by bench prop Sam Moa to open the Roosters account.
Williams himself crossed for a converted try on the stroke of halftime to give the Roosters the lead at the break.
But a second-half shutout consigned their fate.
Kenny-Dowall butchered the Roosters’ best chance of taking the lead with a spectacular dropped ball over the tryline.
The New Zealand international had been put through a gap by Williams but was stripped while over the tryline.
Earlier, the visiting side started strongly with Elijah Taylor and Ngami Laumape crossing for the game’s opening two tries.
The Warriors had two second-half tries denied by the video referee, the first an ‘iffy’ grounding by Fisiiahi and a second in which Dane Nielsen was ruled to have knocked on in the lead-up to a Ben Matulino grounding.