The Wentworthville Magpies have been defeated 30-6 by the New Zealand Warriors on Saturday night in Round 18 of the VB NSW Cup.
Wenty ran out at Mt Smart Stadium with a heavily reshuffled line up, calling on troops from Holden Cup to bolster their ranks.
With Taniela Lasalo and an unwell Liam Foran ruled out of the side, Isaac Maliota and Sam Gorman moved into the starting side, with NYC Captain Ryan Matterson called on to back up from the Eels’ 22-19 Holden Cup win and join the Magpies on the bench.
Up against a hard-running Warriors side, and struggling with ball control in the damp Auckland conditions, the Magpies were behind early on the scoreboard as Jarrod Tua sailed over in the left corner.
Centre Solomone Kata followed him across the line, and with another four-pointer to Ngataua Hukatai in the right corner, the Warriors NSW Cup side built up a solid 14-0 lead before heading to the sheds for halftime.
Kata continued a strong performance into the second half, grabbing a basketball pass from some broken Warriors play to score his second of the day, and making it a hat trick with just 11 minutes on the clock.
Despite hitting the line hard in attack, Wenty only capitalised on field position once, as halfback Ben Jones took three defenders with him to score the only Magpies try of the day.
Api Pewhairangi’s conversion was successful, but a late second try to Warriors winger Tua took the final scoreline to 30-6 for the New Zealand Warriors, evening up the ledger for the 38-24 defeat Wenty handed the Warriors back in Round 1.
New Zealand Warriors - 30 (Tua 2, Kata 3, Hukatai. Kata: 3/6)
Wenty Magpies - 6 (Jones. Pewhairangi: 1/1)
