New signing Joel Moon was one of the Warriors' best against the Cowboys at North Harbour Stadium yesterday. Photo / Getty Images
Play nzherald.co.nz's rugby Pick the Score competition - go to:
pickthescore.nzherald.co.nz
Warriors 32
Cowboys 28
High expectations for a good Warriors season were signalled when 16,703 turned out to watch them come from three tries down to edge North Queensland with a late scoring blitz at North Harbour Stadium yesterday.
There was plenty for the coaching staff and fans to be pleased about.
The new buys from Brisbane, Joel Moon and Denan Kemp, both looked extremely sharp in attack and will add another dimension to the offence.
The key components of the successful 2008 campaign look ready to back up - from prop Steve Price and secondrower Simon Mannering to half Nathan Fien and wing Manu Vatuvei, who all played their first game in three months, to fullback Wade McKinnon, who covered the Cowboys' kicks well.
Utility Lance Hohaia was sharp, scoring in back-up after Kemp made a 60m break.
In the halves, Stacey Jones was as commanding as ever, ordering the troops around and showing calm precision under pressure. His role was largely ball distribution, and he set up tries for Malo Solomona - when he handled twice in a run-around and then went wide to the winger - and for youngster Lewis Brown after a repeat set of six near the Cowboys' line.
Moon looks dangerous most times he gets the ball; big and strong in the mould of Brad Fittler, he's keen to run and able to off-load. So there is no need for Jones to run, just to set his international outsides, including Brent Tate, Jerome Ropati and Vatuvei, away.
In days gone by Jones was the only go-to man - now there are a handful so Jones can wait to make his breaks when others are covered.
Fien ran at five-eighths for one quarter. To emphasise the new depth in the halves, there were also good performances from Isaac John at halfback and Liam Foran at five-eighths for the Auckland Vulcans, as they led 16-0 over the Warriors under-20s before winning 48-22.
There was just one downside to the Warriors' game, in that four of the five tries they let in came from simple charges at the line from short distance, just the one to centre Willie Tonga running an angle off hooker Aaron Payne's break engineered with any panache.
Coach Ivan Cleary acknowledged that, but said he was generally happy with the hit-out and a second confidence-building pre-season win, especially given there were no injuries.
"The defence was pretty brittle at times. We had four rookies in the forward pack - they just haven't experienced that speed."
He will test his halves options again against the Gold Coast at Lismore on Saturday as he seeks answers about his starting line-up for the season-opener against Parramatta at Mt Smart on March 14.
