Source: Radio New Zealand
Warriors reflect on their comprehensive loss to Wests. Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
Analysis: After sweeping all before them over the opening weeks of the NRL season to sit atop the competition table, the Warriors have crashed back down to earth with a limp defeat to Wests Tigers.
Against a team given little chance without one of its most decorated players, the Auckland side took their foot off the throat way too early – midway through the first half – and paid a heavy price on the scoreboard, falling 32-14.
The Warriors were welcoming back star half Luke Metcalf from a season-ending knee injury that had kept him on the sidelines for nine months and his addition was supposed to take them to a new level.
It did, just not the one envisaged.
To some extent, this seemed one of those games where the ball simply didn’t bounce their way, but coach Andrew Webster wasn’t buying that.
“I’ll give you an example,” he said. “When they put up those kicks and they’re challenging for high balls, there’s a deflection and they score a try, there’s a reason they’re getting those good field-position kicks, and it’s from our mental errors or us doing something wrong.
“When you think, ‘Oh, the ball didn’t go our way,’ we’ve got the opportunity to earn everything and make our own luck, but we just weren’t highly concentrated enough.”
He also didn’t accept the return of major contributors like Metcalf and co-captain Mitch Barnett from their long-term injuries would inevitably disrupt the continuity built up without them.
“Last week, we were unsettled,” he said. “We went to Newcastle with last year’s NSW Cup spine in the second half, but next man up, everyone knew their job.
“We had three-four guys out last week – no Capewell, no Charnze.
“Good players come back in. We probably had one session together and it was a good session, I though they clicked really well.
“We will get better with cohesion as we get more fit bodies and everyone’s training more, but I don’t put it down to that.”
Sometimes you need a setback to keep yourself truly grounded with a sense of desperation. The coming weeks will show how the Warriors respond.
Jacob Laban scores a try against Wests Tigers. Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
Here are some of the takeaways from the loss to the Tigers.
Best player
Halfback Tanah Boyd had another influential game, despite the presence of Metcalf outside him, but perhaps the top performance of the night came from second-rower Jacob Laban.
He scored the Warriors’ second try, was centimetres away from another in the second half and made several impactful runs, breaking three tackles and making one linebreak, with 26 tackles in his 46 minutes on the field.
Veteran wing Roger Tuivasa-Sheck led his team in running metres (168), but also made two horrendous errors under the high ball that saw the Tigers score back-to-back tries before halftime.
Dally M-leading front-rower Jackson Ford put in another sterling shift of 69 minutes and emerged as top tackler with 45, but also made a couple of costly errors.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad scored two tries from centre, but missed six tackles.
Bear in mind, the Warriors collectively missed 50 tackles, so this wasn’t a complete performance by any means. Even Laban missed five.
Key moment
The Warriors were ahead 10-0 and cruising midway through the first half, when centre Adam Pompey was sin-binned for impeding the Tigers, as they rushed to take a quick tap from their 20 to start a seven-tackle set.
Somewhere in his absence, they drifted off the rails.
Pompey was back on the field and his team were at full strength, when they scored three tries in quick succession to lead 16-10 at the break, and then they continued that momentum with the next try to put the contest out of reach.
Webster identified where it all went wrong: “Discipline in the back end of that first half, I’d say.
“Sin-binning, offsides at the wrong time … we went from a team that was trying to earn everything really well and had the right things at the front of our mind, but we conceded a try and kicked off, forced a turnover and didn’t get to dummy half, those sorts of things.”
Best try
Boyd worked the rightside attack for all three Warriors tries, sending the ball wide for Nicoll-Klokstad’s pair, but finding Laban with a delightful short ball to punch through closer to the posts.
Notably, that was the only try Boyd managed to convert and his other misses really put his side under pressure late in the game, when they tried to stage their comeback.
Injuries
The Warriors seemed to come through the game relatively unscathed, although Leka Halasima left for a concussion check during the second half, which he passed, and he subsequently returned to the field.
Leka Halasima left the field for a head check after being tackled on the tryline. Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
Before kickoff, Webster made a last-minute tweak to his line-up, bringing Taine Tuaupiki into fullback, moving Nicoll-Klokstad to centre and dropping Ali Leiataua to the reserves side for NSW Cup.
“I thought Taine did a fantastic job, when he came on in round two and what he did last week at the Knights, so I thought he deserved to retain his position,” Webster said. “Charnze certainly didn’t deserve to be left out of the side and he’s played international footy at centre.”
Tuaupiki left the game late, apparently cramping up, allowing Nicoll-Klostad to slip back into his more familiar role.
In his first run since suffering his season-ending knee injury last June, Metcalf seemed to get through without setback, but that will become more obvious in the next few days.
“I thought Luke did some really good things,” Webster said. “Like very player tonight, I reckon he’s got some things he wishes he could have his time back on, but I think everyone’s in that boat tonight.”
What the result means
The Warriors’ brief flirtation with the top of the table ended, slipping behind unbeaten Penrith Panthers for now, but in danger of falling further, with Canterbury Bulldogs, Melbourne Storm and Newcastle Knights also still to play this weekend.
Their winning run ends at three games, so they lose the chance to match the 2018 side that won five to start their campaign.
Wests Tigers
When both their veteran halves limped off last week against South Sydney, few believed the Tigers had enough on their roster to make up for their potential absences.
Jarome Luai will miss several weeks with a knee injury, but Adam Doueihi took the field against the Warriors and cut them to shreds with his running game, while Luai’s replacement, Jock Madden, had them in fits with his kicking game.
Doueihi’s suspected hamstring strain was actually a groin strain and coach Benji Marshall was proud of how his newlook halves combination performed.
“It’s a credit to him,” Marshall said. “He could easily have pulled the pin and said, ‘Don’t play me.’
“He had a halves partner [Madden] who had no footy this year. He’s been on the bench for two games, biding his time, but had a great pre-season – I thought he was the difference tonight.
“He put Adam into positions where he could just run, he did all the kicking and took all the pressure off Adam, and let him just play.
Jock Madden had the Warriors in fits with his kicking game. Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
“His grandfather died last week and he didn’t make the funeral, because he wanted to play for the team. He said his grandfather would have wanted him to play … his grandfather would have been really proud of him.”
Obviously, this is not the same Tigers outfit that collected three consecutive wooden spoons and Kiwis should be cheering for Marshall, who is the only NZ or Pasifika coach operating in the NRL.
They are now locked in a five-way scramble at the top of the table and visit Parramatta Eels next week.
What’s next
The Warriors are away for their next two fixtures against Cronulla Sharks on Easter Sunday and Melbourne the following Saturday. In two weeks, they could easily be 3-3 for the season.
These games will give them a solid understanding of where they sit among the contenders or pretenders, before they return home to host Gold Coast Titans.
The Sharks have won one of three heading into this weekend, while the Storm dropped their Grand Final rematch against Brisbane Broncos last week.
“We’re not overreactive in there,” Webster said. “We’re not happy, we’re very frustrated and we missed the mark tonight – we know that.
“We know what we’ve got to work on – it’s clear already for us. We have to work on the ‘how’ and play the way we want to play.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand