Pompey ‘not to blame for loss’

Warriors fullback Charnze NicollKlokstad says the fault shouldn’t lie with Adam Pompey for the loss to the Broncos in Napier on Saturday night, even though his shirt grab in the final minute cost his team a try.

He described their 26-22 defeat as a lost opportunity and given the Broncos were missing five of their best players due to State of Origin duties, this was a chance to get a win against one of the better teams in the NRL.

But the defeat, which was the Warriors’ fourth from their last five games, was a hard one to swallow. ‘‘It was a lost opportunity,’’ Nicoll-Klokstad told Stuff.

‘‘It felt like we were maybe frustrated about the moments we didn’t capitalise on and that reflected in our overall performance.’’

The Warriors were down 26-10 with six minutes to go at McLean Park, but tries by Nicoll-Klokstad and Marcelo Montoya set up a dramatic finish.

However, Nicoll-Klokstad said they shouldn’t have got themselves into a situation where they needed to play catch up.

‘‘It shouldn’t have even got to that,’’ he said. ‘‘We shouldn’t have put ourselves into a position where we needed an all or nothing play at the end to win the game.’’

When Montoya went in again in the final minute, it looked like the Warriors would snatch a win if Shaun Johnson was able to nail the conversion, or at least send the game into golden point territory.

However, it was spotted by the bunker that Pompey grabbed Deine Mariner’s jersey, impacting his ability to make a tackle on Montoya, so no try.

It wasn’t the smartest move in the career of the 24-year-old Pompey and Nicoll-Klokstad acknowledged that it cost them the win, but he spoke to the Warriors centre afterwards and told him not to blame himself.

‘‘I saw the replays and I went up to him and said ‘it’s all good bro, we shouldn’t have been in that position’,’’ Nicoll-Klokstad said.

The game was marred by 12 pitch invaders over the last 10 minutes, which allowed the underthe-pump Broncos players to get a much-needed rest. Despite that, it was a great occasion in Napier, with 16,195 spectators packing out McLean Park.

‘‘It was amazing, there was such a great atmosphere,’’ NicollKlokstad said.

‘‘The fans and the whole community was pumping and there has been such a good vibe this week, hopefully we can come back.’’

The Warriors have now reached the midpoint of the season and have amassed six wins and six losses.

They’ve been able to consistently beat some of the NRL’s lesser lights, like the Cowboys and Bulldogs, but the Sharks are the only team currently in the top eight that they’ve defeated.

Their next two fixtures are against two more top eight teams, the Dolphins and Raiders and the Warriors need to win both if they don’t want to be regarded as a middle-of-the-pack club.

‘‘It’s all about ourselves really,’’ Nicoll-Klokstad said. ‘‘We keep our troops on the field in a couple of those big games, we beat those teams.

‘‘I’m not trying to make excuses for ourselves, but trying to play an NRL game with no bench for the majority of it, isn’t going to help.

‘‘Credit to our boys, we’re staying in the games, but against the Broncos there were no excuses, it was poor from ourselves in certain areas of the game and it’s something we’re going to have to review and build of.’’