Warriors coach Brian McClennan says Sunday’s victory over South Sydney shows the team will be very competitive in the NRL if they can get their share of possession.
The Warriors dominated the ball against the Rabbitohs in Auckland, coming back from two poor performances to thrash an error-ridden Souths team 44-22 in an eight-try rout.
The Warriors were guilty of numerous errors in back-to-back losses to the Roosters and Raiders but turned the tables with aggressive defence and clinical attack and now have a three win, four loss record.
“Today’s the first time when we’ve finished a game this year where we’ve had more possession and the scoreboard pretty much reflects that,” McClennan said.
“I’m pretty confident that if our team finishes with 50 per cent or more of the ball we’ll be a pretty hard side to beat.”
The Warriors have been behind in nearly all their matches this season and went behind again on Sunday to an early Dave Taylor try but McClennan said he wasn’t worried.
“I could see we were getting forward good, we were winning some collisions, and I thought even when we were down 6-0 I could see from the way the boys were playing we were going to be hard to beat.”
The Warriors dominated the rest of the first half, firing off four tries to lead 20-6 before Souths winger Andrew Everingham scored close to halftime.
Another Taylor try after halftime brought the score to 20-16, but the Warriors fired off four tries through Lewis Brown, Jerome Ropati, Bill Tupou and Simon Mannering, two from Shaun Johnson kicks and two from Maloney passes.
Everingham scored just before halftime and another Taylor try shortly after the break brought Souths back to 20-16.
But further tries to Simon Mannering, Ben Henry, Ukuma Ta’ai and Krisnan Inu were too much for the visitors, who looked dangerous with the ball but committed too many errors.
Ropati was moved back to fullback in the absence of the injured Kevin Locke and was impressive before going off with a hamstring problem shortly after halftime, an injury McClennan thought wasn’t too serious.
“We’re thinking at this stage it’s a strain as opposed to a tear,” McClennan said.
“He’s walking around on it a bit gingerly at the moment but we’re hoping that it’s all right.”
Souths five-eighth John Sutton said the Warriors “pulled our pants down”, while coach Michael Maguire said his side committed too many errors.
“We knew they were going to come at us and be very, very hungry but we just kept turning the ball over and put too much pressure on ourselves,” Maguire said.
“When you do that against a side like the Warriors they take their opportunities.”
