Warriors 35
Eels 6
Their mid-season surge continued with a clinical dismantling of an under-strength Eels side at Mt Smart yesterday, but things are about to get a whole lot tougher for the Warriors.
With an away trip to the in-form Panthers - who take on the Dragons tonight in a top-of-the-table clash - to come this Sunday followed by matches against the Storm (home) and Rabbitohs (away), the Warriors have reached a fork in the road.
Negotiate a couple of victories from those fixtures and they'll end the regular season well inside the top eight. Stumble, and they'll find themselves in a dogfight to make the play-off cut.
"There are rough waters ahead, I suppose - but there is never an easy game," coach Ivan Cleary said after his side killed off the flagging Eels with a late surge.
"There is still a long way to go. Nine games to go is a long time but you can certainly sense a bit of confidence in the shed."
Well the Warriors might be confident. Three straight wins represent their best run of the season, while an 8-7 record is the first time since round five the club has had more marks in the "W" column than the "L" column.
The two points lifted the Warriors to eighth, but a rash of byes to some of their nearest competitors meant they merely kept up with the play-off pace rather than earning themselves any breathing space.
Yesterday's win was built on a tenacious first-half defensive display and an outstanding fill-in performance at fullback by Jerome Ropati.
With veteran fullback Lance Hohaia joining a good portion of the club's experience in the casualty ward after pulling a groin muscle in training - and back-ups Kevin Locke and Patrick Ah Van also crocked - Ropati stepped in to reprise a role he has performed at international level for the Kiwis.
With persistent rain lashing Mt Smart it was hardly a night for fullbacks. Eels fullback Tom Humble, himself standing in for Jarryd Hayne, coughed up five errors. Ropati was faultless, cleaning up anything that came his way and running for a remarkable 242m. Putting that effort in context, no Eel even reached 100m.
"I thought [Ropati] was outstanding actually," Cleary said. "I couldn't ask for any more really. He was error free on the night. The longer the game went on the faster he got, terrorising their blokes in the middle with his footwork and power. He just popped up everywhere he was needed. It was a pretty good fill-in job, yeah."
The Warriors opened the scoring through centre Lewis Brown but were then pegged by a spectacular 70m Eels try sparked by Auckland-bound wing Krisnan Inu, whose chip ahead was regathered by Brendan Oake and fed to Humble for the try.
At that point the Eels looked anything but the competition's worst attacking side, but the try proved to be all they could muster.
The Eels hung in for 20 minutes in the second half before the hulking Ukuma Ta'ai emerged from the bench to power over for the decisive try.
Ta'ai's score and a James Maloney penalty made the game safe, with the Warriors pouring on three more tries as the Eels' resolve dissolved.
The Eels began the season as the darlings of Sydney after last year's surge to the Grand Final, but this year they are looking more and more like whipping boys. Their coach Daniel Anderson is sure to cop some criticism after a third straight defeat dropped his side four points out of the play-off places.
"We are running out of games, that is the pressure we have put ourselves under," Anderson said.
The Warriors will be hoping to get some injured troops back for the testing trip to Penrith but Cleary wasn't confident that would happen. Hohaia's injury may sideline him for several weeks, while the club is still playing a frustrating waiting game with Brett Seymour, Sam Rapira, Jacob Lillyman and Kevin Locke.
"We might get a couple, but I've said that too many times and no one comes back," Cleary said.
"It was the most control I've seen us play with for a long time. I felt we were in control for most of the game.
"The boys didn't panic. They just kept playing the way we spoke about playing. For such a young team I am pretty happy."
