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Toby Rudolf celebrates his sweeping attempt for the Sharks.
Cronulla forward Toby Rudolf reminded the Warriors of what they will miss out on next year after scoring the crucial attempt to end the New Zealand club’s final dream.
After an error-ridden first half, the Warriors rallied to hold a two-point lead with seven minutes left at the Jubilee Oval.
However, Rudolf, who earlier this year agreed to play for the Warriors starting next season only to withdraw from the deal, broke the spirits with a devastating attempt. Cronulla midfielder Ronaldo Mulitalo froze the score to death with his second to seal a 22-14 victory.
Entering the game four points behind Cronulla, the Warriors needed to win to stay in contention for the top eight.
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Instead, it was the Sharks who secured the victory necessary to guarantee a playoff spot with two games to play, leaving the Warriors to complete their valiant campaign against Canberra and Manly before they can finally return home.
For the second time this season, former Warriors star Shaun Johnson returned to haunt his former club.
Receiving the captaincy following Wade Graham’s suspension, a career first for the 30-year-old, Johnson responded with a great first half and was instrumental in the Sharks’ late rise.
The Warriors, meanwhile, will be left to ruin a poorly disciplined display, particularly in the first half, when the size of the occasion seemed to overwhelm them.
It was certainly not the performance we had grown used to for the past eight weeks, with the team coughing up seven errors while on the wrong side of a 5-1 penalty count in the first 40.
Sharks mainstay Aaron Woods threw a try in the 10th minute before Johnson soon took control, setting up two kick attempts for wingers Sione Katoa and Mulitalo.
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Sharks center Josh Dugan is engulfed by the Warriors.
The first effort was a great heads-up play, with Johnson kicking early in the tackle count after seeing Roger Tuivasa-Sheck on the defensive line and Katoa comfortably won the run to the ball.
It seemed the former Golden Boot winner couldn’t go wrong in the first half after he also came up with an inning to save an attempt at opposite Chanel Harris-Tavita meters from the line.
Given the number of mistakes they made, Warriors coach Todd Payten probably would have been happy to go to the break with a 12-0 loss.
But four minutes before halftime, Tuivasa-Sheck got his team back into the competition with a moment of magic, producing a magnificent volley for Jack Murchie to score from 20 meters.
The Warriors had the perfect opportunity to level the scores early in the second half after back-to-back errors by Mulitalo, only for George Jennings, who had a game to forget, to enter touch from a scrum.
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The Warriors look on after conceding a try in the first half.
That was compounded by an unnecessary penalty from Murchie to invite even more pressure from the Sharks.
Having struggled to hold their line twice, the Warriors managed to change the momentum when the Sharks’ discipline was called into question.
As she has done so often this season, center Peta Hiku showed her class to ignore Josh Dugan and put Adam Pompey on a pass without looking.
Harris-Tavita hit the sideline conversion to put them back on equal footing and, with 18 minutes to go, followed with a 43-meter booming penalty goal to put his team in front for the first time.
It was an extremely tense finish and for a moment it looked like the Warriors could survive as Cronulla wobbled with the ball.
However, another point from Johnson nearly dropped Katoa before a shoulder charge from Jazz Tevaga sent the Sharks back on the attack.
This time the Warriors couldn’t resist them.
Rudolf accelerated the ball from 10 meters and went through three defenders to cruelly end the Warriors season.
Sharks 22 (Ronaldo Mulitalo 2, All Sione, Toby Rudolf tries; Shaun Johnson 3 goals) Warriors 14 (Jack Murchie, Adam Pompey tries; Chanel Harris-Tavita 3 goals) HT: 12-6.
