The Warriors have notched their first NRL win of the season with a hard fought 18-6 victory over Canberra at GIO Stadium on Sunday.
Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei continued his strong form against the Raiders by notching up his 13th try against them in six games when he opened the scoring in the 27th minute.
And while the win gets the ball rolling on the Warriors’ 2015 campaign, there are concerns aplenty for them in the week ahead.
Captain Simon Mannering was put on report for a high tackle on Raiders winger Sisa Waqa midway through the first half.
Golden Boot holder Shaun Johnson also played through obvious discomfort after hurting his wrist in the 22nd minute, while fullback Sam Tomkins twisted his ankle in the second half.
The Raiders meanwhile had both winger Jeremy Hawkins (dangerous tackle) and forward Luke Bateman (crusher tackle) placed on report.
With the Warriors having scored 50-plus points against the Raiders in their last three outings, Canberra were playing with a point to prove – and were watching Johnson like a hawk.
And while they went down, they did so swinging and were a big step up from the hapless outfit of 2014.
It was just a sloppy five minute period directly after halftime – only seconds after coach Ricky Stuart said he was happy with their performance to that point – that ultimately cost the Raiders their second win of the season.
Paul Vaughan knocked on from the restart, and the Warriors punished them immediately with centre Solomone Kata scoring his first NRL try.
Ryan Hoffman was then rewarded with a try for his strong performance (172 metres, 24 tackles) to put the Warriors up 18-6.
The first half was full of end-to-end footy, but both sides were guilty of impatience in good field position to enter the break at 6-all.
New winger Waqa has so far proved a great buy for the Raiders, getting them back to level pegging with some brilliant aerial skills from a Mitch Cornish kick.
Blake Austin made a number of impressive half breaks, while Jack Wighton continues to be a nuisance for opposition teams at fullback.
He made two desperate try-saving tackles in the first half, and threatened with in attack all night.
