Warriors coach Andrew McFadden lauded his side’s composure after their 48-0 thrashing of the Eels at Mount Smart Stadium on Saturday night.
In their biggest win in eight years, the Warriors scored eight tries against the Eels, who were without star fullback Jarryd Hayne, and climbed two places to sixth on the NRL ladder.
McFadden heaped praise on his playmakers Chad Townsend and Shaun Johnson, who kicked a perfect eight from eight goals, labelling their performance as the “best of the season”.
“I think that’s probably the best we’ve played in terms of sticking to our plan and we obviously scored some points off the back of that,” McFadden said.
“It doesn’t always come that easy but we took our opportunities and that was very pleasing.”
Sam Tomkins proved he is an elite fullback in the NRL, slicing the defence to shreds while showing composure under the high ball.
He score two tries and set up captain Simon Mannering for another.
Nathan Friend, with 35 tackles, and Ben Henry (27) led the Warriors in defence and played a key role as the team completed their first shutout since 2009.
With a 36-0 advantage at half-time, McFadden said the emphasis in the second half was to defend well and stick to their structures.
“Usually under those circumstances the opposition find something and they did, and they put us under a bit of pressure in the second half,” McFadden added.
“But again I was really pleased with the way that we held them out. We had zero scoreline against us and that’s probably the big one.
“Not conceding any points is the big one for us.”
Meanwhile, Eels coach Brad Arthur slammed referees for what he deemed to be unfair treatment as his was hammered in the penalty count inside the opening quarter.
“I had a meeting with [NRL referees elite performance manager] Tony Archer the other day about penalty counts at the start of the game and it was 5-0 against us again today,” he said.
“Then when you do get the ball you’re gassed. In the first 10 or 15 minutes we made nearly three times the amount of tackles as them.”
Without Jarryd Hayne – given the week off to recover from three gruelling Origin encounters – there was little of the grit and determination the Eels showed in their loss to the Knights prior to last week’s bye.
The Warriors were without Jayson Bukuya, who pulled out moments before kick-off with a toe injury. He is expected to return next week, along with Kiwis utility Thomas Leuluai after a lengthy period on the sidelines.
