20-0 down after 18 minutes. 26-12 down at half time.

The score line the Warriors faced after 40 minutes last Sunday against the Cronulla Sharks, was a margin that no doubt sent a few fans to bed early. As The Big League Podcast’s Nathan Limm remarked ‘The Warriors don’t come back from 20-0 down, they just don’t’.

What transpired in the second 40 minutes of football has been touted as one of the finest performances in Warriors history, as the boys from Mt Smart produced 20 second half points of their own, with the icing stroked between the goalposts by Shaun Johnson with two minutes on the clock.

So how did the Warriors, infamous for second half implosions and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, play with such poise and ticker in that final 40 minutes to beat the Sharks?

Warriors’ fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was one of the standout performers from Sunday and told The Big League Podcast the mood in the dressing room and words from players and coach Andrew Webster were not reflective of the score line at all.

“I remember Jazz (Tevaga) saying ‘It’s gonna be a hell of a story, it’s gonna be a hell of a story.’”

Nicoll-Klokstad says the key to their belief was reminding themselves that the deficit was only two tries and coach Webster giving them areas to work on in the second stanza.

Early in the second half, Ed Kosi crossed the chalk for the Warriors and was not afraid to let his opposite, Kiwis winger Ronaldo Mulitalo, know all about it.

This exchange sparked a back and forth between the two that culminated in Mulitalo dotting down just four minutes after, with the Sharks outside man not afraid to let his feelings be known to Kosi, unleashing a verbal spray of such ferocity he had the commentators thinking it had been rehearsed at half time.

Nicoll-Klokstad told Nathan Limm that sort of gamesmanship is part and parcel of playing against Mulitalo, a Kiwis teammate of his.

“That’s just Ronnie, you know, that’s how he loves to play and that’s sort of his game plan I guess, try get stuck into his opposition’s head and Kosi did a real good job just being composed and sticking to his guns.”

Due to the hectic nature of the finish to the game, as well as worsening weather conditions, Nicoll-Klokstad said he and a few other players missed an opportunity to catch up with Mulitalo following the final whistle but it appears there are no hard feelings.

When the NRL draw was released at the beginning of the season, there would be few that would have picked the Warriors to have a 5-1 record after six games.

Should they beat the mercurial Newcastle Knights at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday that is the exact situation they will find themselves in.

“They’ve got players that can do freakish things and things out of the blue, they’ve got speed on the edges,” says Nicoll-Klokstad.