League: Coach confident defensive loopholes will be plugged

Warriors head coach Andrew McFadden. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Warriors coach Andrew McFadden is confident his side can rectify their right edge defensive frailties ahead of Sunday's 20th anniversary game against Brisbane.

Against Parramatta last Saturday, with fullback Sam Tomkins sidelined by a knee injury and youngster Tuimoala Lolohea covering his absence, the Eels capitalised on the Warriors' disjointed right edge by running in two long-range tries to Brad Takairangi and Reece Robinson.

With Matt Allwood set to debut at right centre and Lolohea back wearing the No1 jumper this weekend, there are concerns the positional changes and fledging combinations could again leave the Warriors' backs vulnerable.

However, McFadden believes improved communication between wing Jonathan Wright, Allwood, and back-rower Bodene Thompson should see their wide defence tightened up.

"We've addressed that as a group," he said. "We just lost our way, we just stopped talking with each other and therefore our decision making wasn't that great. We did regain that focus towards the end of the game and the last 10 to 15 minutes was pretty good defensively.

"I know people are picking up on those little negatives but we've certainly acknowledged the positives there as well."

With regular centres Konrad Hurrell and Ngani Laumape still returning from knee injuries, the Warriors' midfield stocks are running thin but the feeling is Allwood will rise to the challenge.

"That's what we expect in our group - that anyone who comes in that puts on the jumper needs to do the job," said McFadden. "I think there were a few question marks about the amount of debutants we had in round one and they went out and did the job for the team and that's what we expect this week as well."

Despite it being just his seventh NRL appearance, McFadden has few concerns about Lolohea's ability to handle what will be a big occasion for the 20-year-old.

"It's a pretty simple message for Tui, to back himself. He's a naturally confident sort of person so I think keeping it simple for Tui is the best thing."

Just as Shaun Johnson's attacking role in the side had been overshadowed by five-eighth Chad Townsend over the opening three rounds, McFadden hopes others will strive to make up for the loss of Tomkins' talents.

"We certainly will lose a little bit without Sam. He's obviously got a lot of experience there and the high level of skill that he can produce is something we'll have to adapt to.

"But we are trying to have a game that doesn't rely on the big plays anymore. You'll notice that in the first three rounds a lot of our tries haven't been scored off set-piece so we're hoping that we won't need that as well."