Warriors on high alert over Roberts

Gold Coast centre James Roberts’ outstanding run of form has the Warriors on high alert ahead of the clubs’ NRL clash in Robina.

The speedster grabbed two more tries in the Titans’ 28-14 win over Canterbury last Sunday to take his season’s tally to 13.

He also dotted down against the Warriors in a 32-28 victory in Auckland on Anzac Day.

The two sides meet again on Saturday, with Warriors coach Andrew McFadden wary of the threat posed by the 22-year-old.

“They obviously have some real strike,” he said of the Titans.

“That Roberts is a real handful and they’re going to be a good challenge.”

The job of marking Roberts will go to rookie Solomone Kata, who also got a brace against the Sydney Roosters at the weekend to take his own try haul in his debut first-grade campaign to 11.

McFadden was pleased with the way Kata, 20, defended against the more-experienced Blake Ferguson in that game.

“I thought he was terrific against a very high-quality player,” he said.

“Not dissimilar players, but with Roberts you have to handle him as a team, because he comes back through the middle as well as out wide.

“It will be something that everyone will be on high alert for.”

The Warriors’ 25-21 loss to the Roosters dropped them to 10th on the table, although they trail the eighth-placed Titans by only a narrow for-and-against difference.

For McFadden, it was the familiar story of errors and less that water-tight defence that proved costly last Saturday night.

“If we had been a bit better defensively, we could have closed that out,” he said.

“I think we just let it slip with a few soft tries, so certainly very disappointed with that.”

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