League: Warriors win two in a row

The Tigers' John Skandalis gets caught in the tackle by Nathan Fien. Picture / Fotopress

The New Zealand Warriors recorded back-to-back wins in the NRL for the first time since late 2003 when they downed the Wests Tigers 21-4 in atrocious conditions at Ericsson Stadium today.

The Warriors scored four tries to one in a match that began in dry weather but proceeded at times in what seem like a monsoon.

The rain was so heavy during parts of the first half that it was hard to make out individual players and some of the line markings were washed out.

For the Warriors, centre Clinton Toopi scored two tries and set up the other.

Queenland State-of-Origin hero Steve Price again helped to lay the platform up front for the Warriors, but the skipper limped off with what appeared to be a knee injury in the second half.

There was good supporting performances from lock Sione Faumuina, halfback Stacey Jones, who showed glimpses of his form of old on attack, and hooker Lance Hohaia.

The soggy conditions helped the Warriors to stifle the threat posed by dangerous opposition halves Scott Prince and Benji Marshall.

Before the weather turned bad, the Warriors took the lead after eight minutes with a fine try to winger Todd Byrne, his eighth of the season.

Byrne was put in space with a spectacular around-the-corner pass from Toopi, who was a late addition to the starting 13 after winger Manu Vatuvei pulled out because of 'flu.

The Warriors increased their lead to 6-0 with a Hohaia penalty before Wests struck back thanks to a mistake.

Centre Jerome Ropati had done well to run a kick out of the in-goal, but then threw a blind pass to a Tiger.

From the resulting possession, Marshall produced a long cut-out pass that sent winger Pat Richards over in the corner.

About that point, the heavens opened and turned Ericsson Stadium into a skating rink.

The Warriors, on the back of some quick play-the-balls, began to get the upper hand in the tricky conditions.

Toopi grabbed his first try with a run past three defenders.

Jones, who had produced a 40-20 kick to give his side field position, then potted a field goal on the stroke of halftime for an 11-4 margin at the interval.

Ball security was difficult in the second half and both teams coughed up possession regularly.

Toopi settled the nerves of the home fans 16 minutes from the end when he finished off a move with a strong run to the corner.

Interchange forward Richard Villasanti added the icing with a try on fulltime.

Result:
New Zealand Warriors 21 (Clinton Toopi 2, Todd Byrne, Richard Villasanti, tries; Lance Hohaia, goal; Stacey Jones, goal, field goal)
Wests Tigers 4 (Pat Richards, try)

Halftime: 11-4.

- NZPA