League: Warriors may pay for best win of the season

Warriors 34
Tigers 12

The Warriors must wait to see what price they will pay for what was their best performance of the season.

Louis Anderson is on report for a late charge on Tigers half Scott Prince late in the game which sparked a push-and-shove match while coach Tim Sheens was upset with a Ruben Wiki hit on young fullback Shannon McDonnell.

McDonnell cracked a rib and will be ruled out of the New South Wales under-19s to play the State of Origin curtain-raiser on Wednesday.

"It looked to me like the arm's come in contact with the kid's nose," Sheens said. "He was bleeding from it as well. There's no doubt that will be looked at."

Sheens and Prince both had plenty to say about an incident 10 minutes after halftime when wing Daniel Fitzhenry was picked up by three Warriors, driven to the in-goal and dumped, suffering a cracked collarbone.

Prince complained to rookie referee Jarryd Maxwell at the time, and his coach agreed.

"I thought the interpretation was in that instance, he's supposed to be held. He was put in a dangerous position. They'll change it next week [but it's] a bit late for Fitzy," Sheens said.

Maxwell ruled held-in-goal, forcing the Tigers to drop-out from under the posts. In the next set of six Nathan Fien put in a chip which was knocked back by big wing Manu Vatuvei for Anderson to score and take the game away from the Tigers at 28-6.

The Warriors also capitalised on Wiki's hit on McDonnell, with the turnover leading to prop Evarn Tuimavave busting over from dummy-half to put the result beyond doubt with 20 minutes to go.

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary described the game as their best this year. The score might have been higher were it not for the Tigers' staunch defence in the second half, Cleary said.

"We created more chances tonight than we have in any other game."

Only scrambling defence and the Tigers' superior speed at the back stopped the scoreline blowing out as the Warriors made mid-field busts and took intercepts out wide.

It had much to do with the stability and control of halfback Grant Rovelli and five-eighth Jerome Ropati who individually and as a combination had their best games of the season.

With the hooker, half, five-eighth and fullback all playing at the top of their games it set a good platform.

But everyone had played well, Cleary said. Reviews of every other game showed three or four individuals having off games. "Maybe it's a simple as that."

They push ahead of Parramatta and Souths on the NRL table and face Cronulla away next weekend before hosting a Broncos side that will be weakened by State of Origin II.

The Warriors were good from their first set, Tuimavave off-loading to put Sione Faumuina on to the goal-line. Video ref Phil Cooley gave Faumuina a benefit-of-the-doubt try as the ball spilled as he crossed and fell on it.

Tuimavave had a barnstorming game as starting prop to replace Steve Price and it was his bust that set up try two, off-loading to the ever-present Brent Webb who out-paced the cover. When the Tigers dropped the ball then conceded a penalty for giving lip to Maxwell, the Warriors mounted more pressure, holding the Tigers deep in their territory. They forced a turnover and centre Simon Mannering crossed for his second try of the season.

It was only when Kiwis five-eighth Benji Marshall ran and created things that the visitors looked dangerous. Marshall made the Tigers' first try with an inside back-flip pass to send debutant Taniela Tuiaki away. But with seconds left George Gatis drove out of dummy-half and Awen Guttenbeil linked with Rovelli to make it 22-6 at the break.

Afterwards Sheens said his side lacked cohesion without skipper Brett Hodgson, who was away with the Blues Origin team. "He's an integral part of our link game out the back."

Of Marshall, he said there were good and bad things in his game and he had "a long way to go".

THE STATISTICS

Warriors
Penalties 3
Tackles 286
Missed tackles 18
Line breaks 9
Off-loads 12
Errors 9

Tigers
Penalties 7
Tackles 299
Missed tackles 19
Line breaks 3
Off-loads 7
Errors 13

Crowd 8210