Warriors 12 Roosters 38
BRAITH ANASTA firmly believed nothing he did here would make any impression on the NSW selectors. But he did it anyway, and perhaps Roosters coach Brad Fittler will be crediting a bush football team for providing the alternative inspiration for his five-eighth.
After Anasta regally kicked, prompted and niggled the Roosters to the first victory by an away side at Mt Smart this season, Fittler got the giggles when he told the media about his team reading up on the away-form exploits of the Cobar Roosters.
But sure enough, taped to the dressing-room wall was a newspaper cutting about the other Roosters' table-topping record in NSW country Group 11 football - which noted that four of the past five NRL premiers had the season's best away record and quoted Cobar president Harley Toomey's explanation for their road form: "I guess we have bloody tough men."
Fittler said yesterday: "People who succeed in travel are tough people, and the boys showed tonight they are mentally tough. That's our best win, there is no doubt."
Scoring a try, kicking five goals (despite being "bloody scared") and combining with Mitchell Pearce for some precision short kicking, the only thing Anasta apparently did wrong was concede a penalty to Brent Tate after a play-the-ball scuffle. And even referee Ben Cummins changed his mind on that two plays later (and too late to reverse a subsequent kickable penalty converted by Lance Hohaia) and instead put Tate on report for leading with his elbow, to Anasta's bemusement.
"I do stand by that," Anasta told the Herald later of his belief the selectors would not reconsider him for Origin II. "The [NSW] boys played really well, and I realistically don't think there will be any opportunity. We'll see how we go: maybe the third game. I've been really happy the way I've been playing the game all year, and I won't change much: I'll just keep playing well and see what happens."
They didn't change much here: Anasta said the Roosters had scored against every team so far from kicks, but were particularly aware of the Warriors' three-quarter line reshuffle and backed themselves. It worked brilliantly, home skipper Steve Price observing: "It was pretty hard to stop."
The main beneficiary was Shaun Kenny-Dowall, the awkward, big-boned wing from the Waikato town of Ngaruawahia. Before a busload of whanau (extended family), he scored three tries, although he seemed more concerned about bombing a fourth.
"It was like a family reunion: aunties, uncles, cousins, everyone was here," he said. "I got 30 tickets, all of them free from the club, so they were happy as. To play like that in front of my family, I'm still pretty happy … but I made some crucial errors as well, and I just want to take them out of my game and learn to be more consistent."
Fittler's focus on travelling well was understandable. Until yesterday, the Warriors had the record of no defeats at home, and no victories away.
But given the magnitude of their 24-point defeat at Penrith last weekend, this contest shaped as a record-breaker. The margin of defeat yesterday was two points greater, yet Price suggested: "It didn't seem like we did too much wrong … it was pretty hard to talk to the boys behind the line because we weren't doing anything wrong. The scoreline may stay the same, but I don't think it reflects the effort. Even 'Mase' [Willie Mason] said to me … 'I sort of felt sorry for youse today."'
Fair call: they were 20-4 down after 21 minutes when they'd barely had a chance. In the third, Pearce chipped precisely for Kenny-Dowall to reach over Patrick Ah Van. In the fifth, Mason reached around Tate on the final tackle to hurl the ball out to Mitch Aubusson, who put Kenny-Dowall across again. In the ninth, Pearce chipped again from wide on the right, and Anasta contorted himself across Epalahame Lauaki's back, collected, and scored. In the 21st, Pearce cross-kicked, Iosia Soliola batted it back, and Setaimata Sa pounced.
The Warriors' brief response had been a try from wing Aidan Kirk, a 22-year-old in his second first-grade game who could be the competition's most experienced reserve-grader after three years in the wings at the Roosters and one in Auckland. Kirk, said coach Ivan Cleary, was a highlight, and he beat five tacklers to set up their other first-half try, to hooker Ian Henderson, to stay in touch at 20-12 at half-time.
ROOSTER 38 (S Kenny-Dowall 3 B Anasta 2 S Sa S Perrett tries B Anasta 5 goals) bt WARRIORS 12 (A Kirk I Henderson tries and L Hohaia 2 goals) at Mt Smart Stadium. Referee: Ben Cummins. Crowd: 11,922
