League: Unlucky Warriors hit by ref

The Warriors were without an ounce of good fortune as they lost another home game to the Roosters yesterday but, as their captain Steve Price said afterwards, you make your own luck.

The Roosters led 6-4 at the break before former Junior Kiwis captain Iosaia Soliola scored a well-worked try.

Referee Shayne Hayne had earlier denied the Roosters a try when he called Craig Wing for a knock-on prior to Amos Roberts touching down. Both sides had chances and blew them, both got to the line and couldn't get over in what was a physical encounter.

That was illustrated by Adrian Morley's hit on Awen Guttenbeil, with the Warrior flattened and dazed at the 20-minute mark after both sides had scored. The pair are mates and had a laugh about it afterwards.

Price was happy with the Warriors' effort right to the end, unlike the previous weekend when they let the Sharks run through their middle to get a win with 40 seconds to go.

"Gee we defended well today. I'll bet there's 17 sore Roosters today and tomorrow. I'm very very proud defensively."

Offensively, the Warriors created lots of chances but couldn't finish them. Price made special mention of Sione Faumuina's contribution in the new position of five-eighth after three weeks out injured.

Coach Tony Kemp described the Roosters' result with one word: "Lucky." The Warriors had created enough dents in the Roosters, he said, and when the stray passes stuck they would be a different side.

"They had the bounce of the ball today. I'm not disappointed in our effort or style. We created more chances - what we've got works," he said.

The Roosters scored first when Joel Monaghan beat Manu Vatuvei to Brett Finch's cross-field kick at five minutes. Then Stacey Jones' last-tackle kick went backwards off Vatuvei for Todd Byrne to score and all the first-half points were posted by nine minutes.

The rest of the half was a dour affair riddled with errors. But the Warriors enjoyed a huge penalty imbalance and should have pressed home on the back of that. Roosters coach Ricky Stuart questioned how they could be perfect while his team was pinged six times but he did not dispute that the visitors were guilty of off-sides at the 10 metres and hold-downs in the tackle.

The Warriors forced three repeat sets from goal-line drop-outs early in the second half but couldn't score, and eventually Lance Hohaia slotted a penalty for their only points of the second spell.

Then the ball was returned to the Roosters by ref Hayne for a scrum 20 metres out - he accused Brent Webb of a knock-on that looked like a knock-back - and Soliola scored the last points of the game.

Stuart praised Finch for continuing to run an attacking game and said they only shut up shop in the last two minutes. "The halfback owns the result," he said.

Though the players shuffled positionally by Kemp all played well and without mistake, there was the suspicion they might have done better with Jerome Ropati in his regular spot at six and Faumuina outside. He played much of the game wide on the right anyway.

The Roosters kicked 22 times during the game, Finch 15 of those and five other players booting down field; the Warriors kicked 13 times, including Jones' nine and Hohaia's three. You can't help thinking the Warriors would have done better with the territory from a better kicking game.

Francis Meli, warned mid-week that he was in on reputation, stepped up with 15 carries for 151 metres. Ruben Wiki smashed up 182m and made 29 tackles. Price was good as usual. Louis Anderson and Byrne were a handful down the left side - Byrne is starting to look like a good buy and a real centre.

At least the fans left Ericsson Stadium thinking they had watched a team capable of winning. But at 10,082, the attendance was short of the club's stated break-even point of 11,000.

Next weekend the Warriors have the chance to play themselves into form against the hapless Souths at North Sydney Oval.