NRL: Price soldiers on as Warriors face short turnaround

Steve Price will play his third game in 10 days when the Warriors take on Newcastle on Friday. Photo / Getty Images

SYDNEY - A battle-scarred Steve Price will haul himself up for a third game in 10 days on Friday to try and inspire his New Zealand Warriors out of their National Rugby League (NRL) slumber.

Last week's 14-0 home win over Wests Tigers was offset by a 10-18 defeat to the previously bottom-placed Cronulla Sharks here yesterday, to make it one win from the Warriors' past six matches.

It left them in 12th spot, five points outside the top-eight as their playoff hopes look decidedly shaky at the season's halfway point.

And it gets no easier this week as the Warriors return to Auckland to host Newcastle on Friday, who were upset 20-18 by lowly Parramatta.

Both sides have to overcome the dreaded five-day backup, and captain Price was quick to remind his players to refocus.

"We just had a talk to make sure we keep our heads up and make sure our recovery's good," he said.

"We've got a short four-day turnaround so we've got to jump back on the horse, real quick."

Points at home are vital for the Warriors who have the bye the following week, before a tough run against Brisbane (away), Gold Coast (away) and the Bulldogs (home).

Just four days after playing in Queensland's State of Origin win, Price backed up at Toyota Park yesterday and led the way up front with 166m gained from 21 hit-ups.

His momentum was halted by a nasty blow which saw him depart for 10 minutes in the second half to have stitches applied above his left eye.

The Warriors again started poorly, the seventh consecutive match they haven't scored a try in the first 20 minutes, and trailed 0-18 after 30 minutes.

Halfback Stacey Jones set up quick tries either side of halftime to winger Manu Vatuvei and benchman Lewis Brown to narrow the gap, but elementary handling errors and stout Sharks defence earned them a deserved third win of the season.

Price was baffled as to the crippling slow starts.

"Everyone's trying their hearts out, it's just doing it all together at the start of the game rather than letting sides get away from us," he said.

"As soon as we're put under pressure we seem to play a bit better.

"We started well last week (against the Tigers), then this week the first time they were down our end of the field they scored off a scrum. You can't afford to do that in NRL or any kind of footy. Then they got another try and we were on the back foot.

"We fought home really well, and hopefully we take that into next week because we've got to. Newcastle are going along very well so that's a big game for us at home."

Five-eighth Joel Moon's condition will be monitored this week after he sat out the second half with concussion suffered early in the match.

- NZPA