Warriors 17
Roosters 16
The Warriors are fit, they have rid themselves of the flakiness that used to so often cost them victory at the end of games and they continue to improve, given the evidence of a 17-16 win over the Roosters yesterday.
But they continue to start slowly, a big concern because that forces them to come from behind.
At Mt Smart yesterday they made a run of unforced errors that robbed them of the early lead they should have taken due to a weight of possession and territory. Joel Moon's long boot kept the Roosters pinned in their own half but the one chance they had when fullback Lance Hohaia scrambled under defenders was overruled by the video referee for a double movement.
Hohaia only came into contention after the last training run when he assured the coaching staff he could play after recovering from a knee strain faster than expected.
There was clear demonstration of how much the team misses him and the two others who returned from injury yesterday, Hohaia running 168m, wing Manu Vatuvei returning 138m and a try and the skipper Steve Price making 176m, an incredible effort given he has sat sidelined for two weekends due to a throat injury that restricted his airways.
"I haven't done anything for 2 weeks, no weights or anything," Price said of his doctor's orders. "I was stuffed."
The coach Ivan Cleary called their first half, when they let in tries to Kiwis centre Iosaia Soliola then Shane Shakleton who ran off the five-eighth Braith Anasta and finally the halfback Mitchell Pearce who slipped and stepped past four to score, the worst he had seen in his four years with the club.
"We looked really lively but for some reason we wanted to come up with the miracle play," Cleary said, bemoaning simple dropped balls.
At halftime the talk was about returning to the things they do well, Price said, hanging on to the ball and completing their sets of six without error, putting on pressure out wide on both sides of the field.
"It shows the mental state of the squad to be able to turn that around in the space of 10 minutes."
Moon was pulled because the coach wanted better organisation in the halves. It was Stacey Jones who stepped up to provide it, working all three tries and the late field goal for victory.
That was due in no little part to a vocal and educated crowd of 16,309 which pilloried referees Ben Cummins and Alan Shortall during the first half when big screen replays on three occasions showed that passes called forward were not and strips not called were strips.
Then followed a string of calls at the back end of the first half and into the second that went the Warriors' way, a fact not lost on Roosters coach Brad Fittler.
"The crowd did a fantastic job, they know when to react and when to rise and every time they did they got a result," Fittler said.
It was hard work getting a penalty for his side.
"That was not the winning and losing of the game," he added, "there were lapses of concentration. We seem to be doing that quite a bit. It's like last year, we play tough in the first half then there were a lot of silly errors, getting in each other's way - childish errors, too many forward passes."
Warriors: Stacey Jones, Jerome Ropati, Manu Vatuvei tries; Denan Kemp 2 goals, Jones field goal.
Sydney City Roosters: Sia Soliola, Shane Shackleton, Mitchell Wallace tries; Craig Fitzgibbon 2 goals.
Halftime: Roosters 16-0
