NRL: Manu vows to atone for Manly game

Manu Vatuvei is well aware he wasn't good enough against Manly and is determined to atone when he takes on the Eels in Parramatta on Monday night. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Manu Vatuvei might have built a reputation as one of the game's best winger but he also has a reputation as one of the most error-prone and his performance for the Warriors against Manly last weekend encapsulated both sides.

He did some good, scoring two tries and making two line breaks, but is was mostly bad as he missed seven tackles and made six errors. It was not the sort of performance the Warriors winger had hoped for to start the season and has led some to question whether he is too much of a liability in a side with some exciting young talent.

"I have learned over the years and I have watched with humour at times when people have knocked a champion player and seen those champion players come back and turn it around," Warriors coach Brian McClennan said. "I'm tipping Manu to do that."

He often does. Vatuvei has an incredible ability to put poor performances behind him, like his meltdown against Parramatta in 2007, and retain confidence in his own ability. He will always make mistakes - his sheer size and lack of natural skill makes this difficult to overcome - but he has a terrific try-scoring record and on Sunday notched his 92nd try in in 133rd NRL game. He needs only eight more to become the first Warriors player to 100 tries.

Vatuvei is well aware he wasn't good enough against Manly and is determined to atone when he takes on the Eels in Parramatta on Monday night.

"It was pretty poor," he said of his game against Manly. "The first half was pretty bad. A few of my defensive decisions, where I should have stayed up [were poor]. That's something I can look back on and learn from.

"I want to bounce back and do more for the team after that performance. Especially now as one of the senior players, that's the type of performance I had when I was young. I shouldn't be doing that. I should be leading as a role model."

Vatuvei is 26 now and in his ninth season in the NRL. He takes his role as senior player seriously, especially as he remembers what it was like for him making his debut as a green and shy 18-year-old.

He has played plenty alongside experienced campaigners like Jerome Ropati, Simon Mannering and Lewis Brown but on Sunday teamed up on the right edge with 20-year-old Konrad Hurrell who was making his debut.

McClennan said there was an "outside chance" of Vatuvei shifting into the centres in Ropati's absence but the coach has also recalled Krisnan Inu into an expanded 20-man squad for Monday night's game and was happy with the impact Hurrell made when he came off the bench.

Vatuvei would need to improve his defensive game to be a long-term option at centre. He is prone to misreads, and this was exposed by Manly, and can slide off tackles despite his strength and size (112kg, 189cm). It's an aspect of his game Vatuvei is working hard on.

"I wouldn't mind making my way inside [to centre]," he said. "I told Bluey [McClennan] that. But there's more pressure on me in defence than attack and that is one of the main areas I'm working on, my defence. My attack is small things I need to tweak."

There's little escaping the fact Vatuvei is targeted by opposition teams and he often finds himself with as many as four defenders swarming around him as he carries the ball but he's looking to add subtle variations to his game so he's less predictable.

That is not, however, something that could be easily said about Vatuvei throughout his career.