{"id":364545,"date":"2026-04-05T07:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T07:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/364545\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T07:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T07:07:10","slug":"nrl-nz-warriors-v-cronulla-sharks-at-sydneys-ocean-protect-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/364545\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL: NZ Warriors v Cronulla Sharks at Sydney&#8217;s Ocean Protect Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JQN872_260405SharksWarriors_1318_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"699\" alt=\"Dallin Watene-Zelezniak of the Warriors scores a try during the match between Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks v One NZ Warriors, round 5 rugby league match of the 2026 Telstra Premiership at Ocean Protect Stadium, Sydney, Australia on Sunday 5 April 2026. Photo credit: Izhar Khan \/ Photo sport\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nDallin Watene-Zelezniak scores for the Warriors during the match against Cronulla-Sutherland at Ocean Protect Stadium<br \/>\nPhoto: www.photosport.nz \/ Izhar Khan\n<\/p>\n<p>Wing Dallin Watene-Zelezniak has scored a hattrick of tries, but could not prevent his NZ Warriors suffering back-to-back defeats, falling 36-22 to Cronulla Sharks at Sydney&#8217;s Ocean Protect Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>After crashing to Wests Tigers last week, the Warriors hoped to regroup on the road and were off to a promising start, but fell off the pace midway through the first half, conceding three consecutive tries to hand over momentum.<\/p>\n<p>Watene-Zelezniak gave them the early lead, but Sharks fullback Will Kennedy scored twice within four minutes to turn the tide, then centre KL Iro compounded their problems.<\/p>\n<p>Watene-Zelezniak scored again before halftime, as Cronulla led 24-10 at the break, and then again immediately afterwards to rekindle some hope of a comeback, but they not continue the rally.<\/p>\n<p>Erin Clark gathered a consolation penalty try in the dying moments, after he was impeded in his chase for a loose ball behind the goal-line, but the Warriors lost centre Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad (head) and five-eighth Luke Metcalf (hamstring) in quick succession near the end.<\/p>\n<p>The Warriors now face archrivals Melbourne Storm, coming off three straight losses and a 50-point horror show against Penrith Panthers over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Follow the live action here:<\/p>\n<p>Team lists<\/p>\n<p>Warriors: 1. Taine Tuaupiki, 2. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, 3. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 4. Adam Pompey, 5. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, 6. Luke Metcalf, 7. Tanah Boyd, 8. James Fisher-Harris, 9. Wayde Egan, 10. Jackson Ford, 11. Leka Halasima, 12. Jacob Laban, 13. Erin Clark<\/p>\n<p>Interchange: 14. Sam Healey, 15. Marata Niukore, 16. Demitric Vaimauga, 17. Tanner Stowers-Smith, 18. Chanel Harris-Tavita, 20. Eddie Ieremia-Toeava<\/p>\n<p>Sharks: 1. Will Kennedy, 2. Sione Katoa, 3. Jesse Ramien, 4. KL Iro, 5. Sam Stonestreet, 6. Braydon Trindall, 7. Nicho Hynes, 8. Addin Fonua-Blake, 9. Blayke Brailey, 10. Tony Rudolf, 11. Billy Burns, 12. Teig Wilton, 13. Jesse Colquhoun<\/p>\n<p>Interchange: 14. Sione Talakai, 15. Tom Hazelton, 16. Oregon Kaufusi, 18. Mawene Hiroti, 19. Hohepa Puru, 22. Briton Nikora<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JQSVE1_warriorssharks_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"656\" alt=\"Warriors v Sharks graphic\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nLuke Metcalf and Nicho Hynes will face off, when Warriors take on Sharks.<br \/>\nPhoto: Liam Swiggs \/ RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallin Watene-Zelezniak scores for the Warriors during the match against Cronulla-Sutherland at Ocean Protect Stadium Photo: www.photosport.nz \/&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":["post-364545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}