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Message: [QUOTE="Super Freak, post: 2689230, member: 8536"] I'll give this a crack. [B]2008 Semi Final #1 New Zealand Warriors 30 def Sydney Roosters 13 Mt Smart Stadium[/B] This is one of my favorite finals games. I had a soft spot for the Warriors, especially after they beat the Storm. Although, I would end up hating them for doing that.. It's not often the Warriors get to play a finals game at home, so the crowd really turned out in force for this one. All you could see was a sea of black, I only spotted a handful of Roosters jerseys in the crowd. I knew the Warriors would be fired up for two reasons. To make up for their loss against the Eels the previous year, and to ensure that Ruben Wiki's final game at home was a successful one. But despite a strong start to the game, the Warriors were a bit of a disappointment in attack in the first half. They started making silly errors and Roosters defense handled them well. Once they started getting more time with the ball, they started to control the game and Warriors were spending a fair bit of time defending in their own half. Eventually they would crack after Roosters gained a repeat set from a 40/20 kick and after a couple of tackles, Pearce crashed over. Just a few minutes later, a very controversial call was made. The Roosters were awarded a penalty try after the video ref ruled that Minichiello was denied a try because of the foul play by Hohaia. Hohaia did foul him, but I don't think there was a guarantee that Minichiello would have scored. It was one of those calls that could have gone either way and it ended up going the way of penalty try. I thought Hohaia was a bit lucky to stay on the field after what the video ref ruled. In the final minute of the half, Anasta nails a field goal and the Roosters go into half time leading by 7. I got to say, even though they were trailing at half time I have to give credit to the Warriors. The Roosters were certain to score on a couple more occasions but they held them out. I'm not sure what went on at half time, but the Roosters were the complete opposite in the second half. Warriors must have realized that they owed it to Wiki and the fans to put in a better performance because they came out in that second half and played with a lot of hunger and determination. They put in nearly a perfect half of footy. They wanted a win badly. They needed to be the first to score and they were just 4 minutes after the break when Hohaia sliced through some lazy defense in the middle and scored under the posts. They came close not long after, but some desperate defense from Anasta denied Kirk a try in the corner. The Warriors could have leveled the scores by kicking a field goal, but they didn't want a field goal. They wanted tries and after a couple of back to back sets from penalties, they were in again when Henderson ran from dummy half and scored under the posts. I thought they were very fortunate to get the try, I thought he had lost control before the ball touched the ground but the call ended up going the Warriors way. The lead up to their next try was superb. Fien put in a perfectly weighted kick into the in goal and when Minichiello got the ball, he was swarmed by Warriors defenders who ended up smashing him and pushing him back in goal. On the following set, the crowd got their wish when big Manu scored in the corner. You could tell from that point, it was well and truly game over. While the Roosters still had time to score points, they were just unable to stop the Warriors onslaught. The kick return after that try was probably the best kick return I had seen that year. Ruben Wiki received the ball and charged straight at the Roosters as hard as he could and ended up knocking out Soliola. He came close to putting him on his ass earlier in the second half, as well. Ropati and Wiki came close to scoring after that. After Warriors threw the ball around, Ropati put in a grubber kick and Minichiello failed to clean it up. Ropati grabbed the ball but he just couldn't control it. It was the Warriors only error in that second half. Wiki came close to crashing over, but the Roosters managed to hold him up. The Warriors fans would have gone completely mental if Wiki had scored. A few minutes later, the Roosters got a rare opportunity in the Warriors half. They spread the ball left and ended up creating an overlap but Tupou held the ball too long and a good tackle from Tate forced his pass to go forward and straight into the hands of Kirk who ran 80 metres to score and cap off a brilliant second half from the Warriors. While Wiki's final game of his career was a disappointing one, he can take comfort in the fact that his last game at Mt Smart was a successful one. I'm not sure what happened to the Roosters, but they did the same thing the week earlier against the Broncos. They played well in the first half, but it all just went to shit in the second half. They had very little opportunity at the Warriors end in that second half and did what the Warriors did in the first half, made a bunch of silly errors which ended up hurting them and gifting the Warriors the chances they needed. Anyway, that's about it. [media=youtube]_FbhTcsAAmU[/media] [/QUOTE]

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