Warriors ‘gave the game away’
"I don't think they beat us, we beat ourselves." Blake Ayshford on the Warriors
Winger Blake Ayshford conceded the Warriors gifted two points to the Raiders in their NRL match in Canberra on Saturday night.
The Warriors lost 20-8, ending their two-game winning streak. They failed to score any points in the second half.
The last 20 minutes was pretty ugly stuff from the Warriors and a big turnaround from the first 20 when they were the dominant side.
‘‘I don’t want to take anything away from the Raiders, but we gave them that game,’’ Ayshford said.
‘‘We played awesome in the first half and the score was 8-6. It was like a semifinal atmosphere in the first half, but in the second we went away from our processes, which was to hand the ball back to them on their tryline.
‘‘We made it hard for ourselves doing all the defence and not completing our sets.’’
The Warriors had plenty of chances in the first half to add to the try scored by Ryan Hoffman in the sixth minute, but were held out by resilient defending from the Raiders, particularly the effort of Jarrod Croker to hold up Roger Tuivasa-sheck over the line.
It could be argued that the Warriors didn’t make the most of that early pressure, but Ayshford doesn’t agree. ‘‘They’re a good side and we planned to wear teams down,’’ he said.
‘‘If we came out playing in the second half like we did in the first, it would have been different.
‘‘We’ve seen the past couple of weeks that we’ve worn teams down, but we didn’t come out with the right attitude in the second half.
‘‘You’ve got to take opportunities when they arise.’’
For the first time in a few weeks, the Warriors’ bad habits returned late in the game. They failed to concede sets, made errors and missed tackles.
‘‘We played that good style of footy in the first half where we defended well - they had three or four sets on our line and couldn’t score. Then we went down their end and got points on the board first,’’ Ayshford said.
‘‘It’s just that they wore us down in the second half and got the better of us.’’
The Raiders game was the first of four tough fixtures for the Warriors who next face a trip to Melbourne on Anzac Day, followed by a home game against the Roosters, then the Panthers away.
It’s a fearsome run of games, but Ayshford is confident they can bounce back.
‘‘As I said, I don’t think they beat us, we beat ourselves. Canberra are a good team, but our plan was to give them the ball on their tryline and make them go 100m. But we were giving it to them in our own half, so they didn’t have to work too hard for it.
‘‘It’s easy to fix. It’s an attitude thing and trusting in our processes.’’