New Zealand Warriors v Cronulla Sharks

Feburary 22nd, North Harbour Stadium

The Development side looked real good in the first half, but then threw away the lead to lose the match. The Warriors only had a 4 man bench, the Sharks 7. We got some impressively big forwards but they noticeably tired in the second half.

The First half of the proper match featured brilliant tries to Jones and Marsh. The Warriors were leading at half time 36-18. But the Sharks came back biting in the second half to lead 42-36! The Warriors had two late tries to win the match 48-42. Francis Meli scored the winning try, Te Mata scored the second to last try after a brilliant break by Vince Mellors. The Warriors had a seven man bench while the Sharks fielded a whole soccer team on theres, its incredible seeing eleven players sitting on the bench.

Mark Robinson played in the first half of the Development match and the second half of the full match. It was noticeable in the second half of the proper match that there was no PJ Marsh on the field.

Crowd was great, heckling the touch judges and the ref, good ol Billy. Over 13,000 people there, a great crowd for a pre-season match.