{"id":66399,"date":"2021-05-02T07:22:52","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T07:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=66399"},"modified":"2021-05-02T10:03:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T10:03:02","slug":"warriors-fans-fume-after-brutal-clash-of-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=66399","title":{"rendered":"Warriors fans fume after brutal clash of giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

A brutal collision between two of the biggest mountains of muscle in the NRL marred the Warriors' 24-20 win over the Cowboys<\/a> – and New Zealand's fans were left fuming.<\/p>\n

Cowboys captain Jason Taumalolo took a hit-up in the 66th minute and clashed heads with Warriors second-rower Ben Murdoch-Masila, before thudding his left forearm into his face as he crashed to the turf.<\/p>\n

A sea of Warriors fans erupted as replays on the big screen showed that Taumalolo had appeared to purposefully strike Murdoch-Masila with his forearm moments after the head collision, which had left the bulldozing Warrior flat on his back.<\/p>\n

Murdoch-Masila left play for a head injury assessment and didn't return.<\/p>\n

"A big collision there," said former Penrith Panthers captain Greg Alexander on Fox League's coverage.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

"Boy, there are some big bodies in that. Ben Murdoch-Masila and Taumalolo. It's a head clash."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Play-by-play commentator Warren Smith added: "Warriors fans here in Gosford are not happy about the action of Taumalolo as he came down with a forearm extended and got Ben Murdoch-Masila."<\/p>\n

A much brighter theme of the match saw rookie mid-season Warriors recruit Reece Walsh produce another scintillating performance to steer his side back to the winners' list.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old former Bronco, who made his NRL debut against the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park on Anzac Day, was swapped from fullback to five-eighth to partner Kody Nikorima in the halves.<\/p>\n

And he registered one try assist, made a linebreak, racked up 103 metres and continually challenged the Cowboys' defence with his exceptional running game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While it reaped no points due to a Josh Curran knock-on, Walsh produced a magnificent second-half passage of play on the left edge.<\/p>\n

The speedster swooped on a loose ball at top pace, beat superstar fullback Valentine Holmes with brilliant footwork, turned veteran winger Kyle Feldt inside-out with more stellar agility and linked with Ken Maumalo, who crossed just inside the corner post.<\/p>\n

The Warriors rocketed to an 18-0 lead inside the first 21 minutes of the game and took a 24-4 advantage into the break.<\/p>\n

And although Cowboys five-eighth Scott Drinkwater would carve out a second-half masterclass to drag his side to within four points, the Warriors held the visitors off to end North Queensland's three-game winning streak.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A brutal collision between two of the biggest mountains of muscle in the NRL marred the Warriors' 24-20 win over the Cowboys – and New […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66399"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66401,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66399\/revisions\/66401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}