Interim coach Peter Sharp says Cronulla have finally found something to base their troubled season on with their first win.
The Sharks returned to their form of last year in Saturday’s round five 37-6 thrashing of a hapless Warriors, with winger Nathan Stapleton scoring four tries.
With Todd Carney combining sharply with Jeff Robson in the halfback’s first game of the year after overcoming facial fractures, and Andrew Fifita banishing a troubled week with a barnstorming first half, the Sharks looked like they did when they reached the second week of the 2013 finals.
“I’m really proud of the boys, it has been a tough week, there has been a lot of soul searching,” Sharp said.
“It would have been a hard road ahead if we didn’t win today. But now we have got some momentum and we will take a lot of confidence from that.”
On the back of last week’s 30-0 thrashing by Newcastle which left them winless after the first month of the season, Cronulla led 16-0 at halftime through tries to Stapleton, Tinirau Arona and Sam Tagataese, with the Warriors struggling to hold onto the ball.
The Sharks went on with it in the second stanza as Stapleton notched three more four-pointers and Blake Ayshford his first for the club since moving off-season from Wests Tigers.
Manu Vatuvei scored a 79th minute consolation try for the Warriors.
“We didn’t have a good start (to the season) and we learnt a few lessons from that,” stand-in Sharks skipper Wade Graham said.
“We started well (today), completed our sets and really earnt the right to play some football.
“I’m really proud of the boys.”
“(The Warriors) were as good as we allowed them to be. We put some real pressure on them.”
The visitors only completed 59 per cent of their sets and their sole highlight was a Herculean defensive effort from hooker Nathan Friend who made 65 tackles.
“It was a colossal effort from Friend but he shouldn’t have been asked to do that,” Warriors coach Matt Elliott said.
“At halftime, I was confident we were still in it but we made mistakes in our first three defensive sets and our first three offensive sets after that.
“We had a lack of respect for possession.”
