With a decision to remain at the Tigers dwelling on his mind, Chris Lawrence has perhaps made that decision somewhat easier for himself, after a two-try effort in the Tigers 20-12 win over the Warriors.
The game was a tense affair in its entirety, and the Tigers very nearly lost it, until Lawrence stepped up in the 73rd minute, and scored a try that sealed the match for the Tigers.
With several clubs chasing him, Lawrence, 22, gave off strong signs that he would indeed re-sign with the Tigers, and reject any other offers that he received from other clubs.
Stephen Humphreys, Tigers Chief Executive, will not comment on the nature of Lawrence’s deal, but the club are confident that all will be sorted before their next home game, which is next week.
“It would be great [to stay],” Lawrence said.
“Hopefully we can finalise that in the next week or two.
“I would love to have the opportunity to keep playing for this club and repay them with loyalty. I’m happy here and really believe in the group we’ve got.
“I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.”
With the Warriors in front, their halfback Brett Seymour made an unusual decision to go for not one, but two field goals, which stunned fans and commentators alike.
When asked about Seymour’s early field-goal attempts, Warriors coach Ivan Cleary said, “I was not a fan of it”.
“We were a bit rudderless tonight. It was just a pretty poor performance really.”
For coach Tim Sheens, he described the night and the performance as a “Panadol night”.
“I was happy with the effort, but the execution could have been better,” Sheens said.
“I thought it was a step up from last week as far as our attitude was concerned.”
Despite their trailing in the second half, Tigers hooker Robbie Farah believed that the support of the crowd is what would get them home, and it did just that.
“I knew we would come home with a wet sail, especially at Leichhardt,” Farah said.
“There were a couple of soft tries we let in, but once we hit the lead the crowd got behind us.”
WESTS TIGERS 20 (C Lawrence 2 B Ayshford R Farah tries B Marshall 2 goals B Marshall field goal) bt NZ WARRIORS 12 (K Inu S Mannering tries B Seymour 2 goals B Seymour 2 field goals) at Leichhardt Oval. Referees: Tony Archer, Alan Shortall. Crowd: 13,161.
Dally M Points
3 Chris Lawrence
2 Robbie Farah
1 Benji Marshall