Young New Zealand halfback Shaun Johnson has inspired the Warriors to a 26-6 NRL win over Gold Coast in Auckland.
The 21-year-old, who burst into first-grade last year with some spectacular performances, had remarked pre-match about the extra attention he’s been getting this season.
But he made light of that on Saturday night with a kicking game that provided plenty of first-half problems for the Titans, while he also scored two of his side’s five tries.
Having fallen behind early in all three of the previous rounds, the Warriors finally avoided their slow-start syndrome to score first and didn’t look back.
Early in the second half, there was a particular highlight for the home fans in the 12,915 crowd as skipper Simon Mannering dotted down in his 150th NRL match and his 50th as club captain.
The win took the Warriors’ record to two win and two losses, while Gold Coast fell to 1-3.
The Titans fought hard, but in conditions that made handling difficult, they produced too many mistakes to put real pressure on the Warriors.
It was a Johnson bomb that was the catalyst for the opening try.
Titans fullback William Zillman couldn’t defuse it and opposition second-rower Elijah Taylor picked up the scraps to barge over.
Another Johnson kick, across field to winger Manu Vatuvei, almost produced another try.
But in a tight decision, video ref Paul Mellor ruled that Vatuvei’s forearm touched the sideline a split second before he got the ball down.
Vatuvei did get on the scoresheet nine minutes from the interval when the Warriors took advantage of good field position after another Titans mistake.
Down 10-0, Gold Coast should have hit back on the stroke of halftime when skipper Scott Prince made a big break and kicked deftly for winger Dominique Peyroux, who couldn’t finish.
Instead, the Warriors gathered the loose ball and streaked downfield.
Vatuvei was pulled down five metres from the line, but Johnson pirouetted from dummy half to bamboozle the defence and dot down.
After Mannering crossed, Johnson extended the margin with an intercept try.
However, Titans had the final word when a Kevin Gordon intercept resulted in Luke O’Dwyer getting a consolation score.
