Sharks 18
Warriors 10
The Warriors had already played the North Queensland Cowboys back into form and then the Canberra Raiders. Yesterday they helped out the hapless Cronulla Sharks by failing to start the game until mid-first half, by which stage it was essentially over.
They have failed to score early then mount pressure on opponents through the past two months and that continued yesterday, the last-placed Sharks scoring two early tries that gave them a taste of blood.
The Sharks were not at all smart nor accomplished, lacking execution and accuracy, dropping balls and missing tackles.
But the Warriors somehow managed to do worse. They were 18-0 down before Stacey Jones produced a kick to Manu Vatuvei who was on the right wing after the switch that accommodates rookie Kevin Locke.
It was one of the few good kicks that Jones or anyone else in the Warriors produced and by the end the accuracy and ground-gain from Trent Barrett and Scott Porter in the Sharks' halves had killed them.
Porter made 461 metres, Barrett 321. Jones played 80 minutes and kicked for 175m, Moon gathered 122m and Hohaia 108 in shorter time on the field.
The Sharks used six rookies and they were the ones who showed out. When the new captain Trent Barrett produced a 40/20 kick it was Matt Wright, second game, who scored from the ongoing plays. New fullback Nathan Stapleton, second game, scored from a set play off the bench hooker Terrence SeuSeu, second season. Porter, 22, was mowing lawns for a living until last month and has played two blinders for the Sharks.
They triumphed despite yet another week of turmoil which saw the club's long-serving manager Barry Pierce resign and the expensive buy Reni Maitua's return a positive B-sample on a steroid test. And they were without their captain Paul Gallen after a shoulder injury.
The Warriors now face an uphill battle of epic proportions to reach the playoff eight. Midway through the 26 rounds they sit four wins out of the finals reckoning and the way they are playing there appears little hope of a miraculous resurrection to match the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
Barrett said they had worked on stopping the Warriors' off-loads and so shutting down the open game that they liked to play. They achieved that, not just because of their own vigilance. Steve Price, Simon Mannering and Wade McKinnon all made breaks that needed back-up, but they and others were left stranded.
"Our new half and fullback are a great combo," Barrett said. The Warriors' half and fullback were not.
Positives for the Warriors? Few.
They kept the Sharks scoreless in the second 40 minutes as they had kept the Wests Tigers scoreless for 80 minutes last weekend - but before the start they knew the Sharks were one of the best defensive outfits in the NRL so to give them a dream start was just plain dumb.
The usual players who play well played well - Mannering at the top of the list, Sam Rapira, Russell Packer, Jacob Lillyman, Vatuvei.
McKinnon did nothing wrong and the fullback-turned-wing Kevin Locke was especially smart in covering the kicks that came his way, as well as offering something in attack.
The Newcastle Knights come to Mt Smart on Friday missing some key players through injury.
