'If it's illegal, it's illegal': No diving from Nicoll-Klokstad

Jasper Bruce, AAP • March 31st, 2025 8:12 am

Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad insists he did not play for a penalty after taking a hit from Alex Seyfarth | Photo: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad insists he would never milk penalties after a high shot from Alex Seyfarth put the Warriors in position to snatch victory over Wests Tigers.

On a night when Tigers coach Benji Marshall claimed his side was hard done by the referees, one officiating call had the largest bearing on the game.

Tigers second-rower Seyfarth floored Nicoll-Klokstad while the Warriors were on the attack with the scores locked at 24-all in the final eight minutes.

Nicoll-Klokstad stayed down in a daze and was attended by a trainer, with replays showing contact between Seyfarth's shoulder and the fullback's chin.

"It was an accident," Nicoll-Klokstad told AAP of Seyfarth's hit.

"I went to brace for impact and he's quite tall so I braced exactly where his shoulder was."

Seyfarth went on report and the Warriors received a penalty, putting halfback Luke Metcalf in position to slot a game-winning field goal from 40 metres out.

The Campbelltown crowd booed Nicoll-Klokstad when he carried the ball thereafter, apparently accusing him of playing for the game-defining penalty.

"I didn't even hear them," Nicoll-Klokstad said after the Warriors' 26-24 win.

"You don't want to be diving for a penalty. That's in the concept of our game, you don't want to be doing stuff like that.

"You don't want to be taking dives."

Nicoll-Klokstad pointed out that the referees had given the Tigers a warning that similar shots would be penalised.

Tigers recruit Jarome Luai had gone on report for make shoulder contact with the head of Warriors winger Ed Kosi earlier in the night.

"Edward Kosi got hit pretty much exactly the same. When it's obvious, it's a penalty," Nicoll-Klokstad said.

"If it's illegal, it's illegal."

Luai's shot left Kosi in need of a head injury assessment, but Warriors coach Andrew Webster would not be drawn on whether he thought the Tigers co-captain should have been sin-binned.

"When I watched it live, Ed's head jolted and I saw obviously that Ed needed to come from the field," Webster said.

"And that's the frustrating bit, I'm not critical of Jarome, things happen in football.

"But I'm more critical of the situation where you keep losing players ... and they keep their whole formation."

The Warriors enter their round-five bye on a three-game winning streak, a welcome turnaround after being thoroughly outplayed by Canberra in the first-round clash in Las Vegas.

Nicoll-Klokstad will use the week off to get away with his young family.

"It's very encouraging, it's good to be able to move into the bye week with a win," he said.

"We didn't look like us at all in Vegas. It's been exciting to see that when we do get our game on, we win."

Listen to Sport Nation's highlights of the NZ Warriors' win over Wests Tigers below: