The New Zealand Warriors showed they are back as a force in the NRL by beating Manly on Sunday to notch their third consecutive victory.

The Warriors came back from an 0-12 deficit to defeat the fourth-placed Sea Eagles 18-16 in a tense match at Mt Smart Stadium.

It’s their fifth win of the season, including their most recent victories against Newcastle and Brisbane – a run which has put their record defeat against Penrith in mid-May well behind them.

Manly dominated the first 20 minutes of the match, winning several penalties and testing out the right side of the Warriors’ defence, and were rewarded with converted tries to Justin Horo and Peta Hiku.

The deficit might have been too much for the Warriors a few weeks ago, but they showed character after a series of penalties against Manly for being up too quick in defence allowed them to get some field position and they were the better team for the rest of the half.

Lock Elijah Taylor stretched out to score beside the post to get the Warriors on the board, and a clever interplay between Thomas Leuluai and Feleti Mateo put Manu Vatuvei in a few minutes later.

Shaun Johnson converted both to make the scores level at half-time.

The teams tightened up their game in the second half and it wasn’t until the 67th minute that the deadlock was broken when Warriors centre Konrad Hurrell beat several defenders coming across the grain to dot down.

Johnson’s conversion made it 18-12, which proved vital a few minutes later.

Steve Matai scored a good try after a Hiku offload for Manly, but skipper Jamie Lyon couldn’t make the sideline conversion.