Chad Townsend produced a late moment of magic to help Cronulla to an unconvincing 22-16 win over the Wests Tigers on Saturday night.
Sharks coach Shane Flanagan had promised a response from his team after their disappointing loss to the Gold Coast last time out. But, as Cronulla have been for most of their title defence so far, they showed only patches of their best football.
For the most part Cronulla were again sloppy at Leichhardt Oval. They made 14 errors compared to Wests’ nine. They gave away seven penalties to the Tigers’ two. They completed just nine of 15, or 60 per cent, of their sets in the first half compared to the Tigers’ 17 of 18 – or 94 per cent.
But still, the reigning premiers found a way to win.
With scores locked at 16-all with 11 minutes remaining, Townsend produced a sublime individual play to get Cronulla over the line.
Seeing there was no fullback at home with Cronulla 20 metres out from the Tigers’ tryline, the Sharks halfback ran to the line before regathering his own deft chip kick to score next to the posts.
The Tigers had started brightly with prop Ava Seumanufagai setting the early tone, steamrolling Matt Prior from the kick off return.
The hosts almost opened the scoring inside two minutes only for Valentine Holmes to kick the ball away from David Nofoaluma, forcing the Tigers’ winger to knock on in the in-goal.
The Tigers did take the lead with a Mitchell Moses penalty goal before Cronulla finally unleashed the T-Rex.
Cronulla shifted right on the back of a Ricky Leutele break with Tony Williams, making his debut for the Sharks after joining the club from Canterbury in the off-season, powering through Moses Suli and Luke Brooks before shrugging off Chris Lawrence to score out wide.
The Sharks crossed again three minutes later. Leutele won possession back for Cronulla after the Tigers failed to get to dummy half after James Tedesco had fielded a kick on his own line. From the next set, Wade Graham found Sosaia Feki with a bullet cut out pass for the winger to score in the corner.
Cronulla were cutting the Tigers to shreds and could have scored again soon after on the back of a Townsend break, with Leutele held up over the line.
The Sharks had a bit of luck go their way on 23 minutes when Tedesco appeared to score. But the video referee ruled Tigers prop Aaron Woods had interfered with Sharks captain Paul Gallen at the play the ball. Though replays showed the contact from Woods was minimal and any contact there was should not have caused Gallen to fall over in the fashion that he did.
That decision seemed to fire the Tigers up and they battled back to take the lead before half-time.
Firstly, a Brooks run ended with Kevin Naiqama scoring in the corner before Suli crossed five minutes later.
Another Moses penalty goal gave the Tigers a 14-10 lead at the break but their task of holding onto that advantage was made tougher when they lost both Woods and Tedesco to injury. Woods injured a groin when he fell awkwardly in a tackle midway through the first half while Tedesco was hit in a high tackle from James Maloney. Tedesco failed a head injury assessment and both failed to return to the field.
Both sides went close after the break before another Moses penalty goal extended the Tigers’ lead to 16-10.
As electric as Cronulla were in the opening 20 minutes they appeared equally as poor for the following 40 minutes. But, almost as if they had simply flicked a switch, the Sharks hit back.
First, Graham fielded a Townsend bomb and found Holmes who scored under the posts to draw Cronulla level at 16-all with 20 minutes remaining.
Then, with 11 minutes to go, Townsend produced his moment of magic to seal the result for Cronulla and ensure the two competition points would be heading back to the shire.
Leader Scoreboard
Cronulla Sharks 22 (Tony Williams, Sosaia Feki, Valentine Holmes, Chad Townsend tries. James Maloney three goals)
defeated
Wests Tigers 16 (Kevin Naiqama, Moses Suli tries. Mitchell Moses four goals)
at Leichhardt Oval
Crowd: 13,405
Leader man of the match: Chad Townsend (Sharks)
Sharks’ next three: Dragons (away), Cowboys (home), Bulldogs (home)