Game plan goes west
WARRIORS prop James Gavet admitted the team drifted away from what works for them, in the 32-0 loss to the Roosters at Mt Smart Stadium last night.
The game started as a tight battle, with the Warriors perhaps playing slightly better.
But as it progressed the Roosters got on top and it was almost inevitable that they scored the first try in the 29th minute.
That was the catalyst for the Roosters to hit top form and the Warriors to go away from their game.
‘‘It was obviously very disappointing,’’ Gavet said.
‘‘But this is nothing we can’t bounce back from.
‘‘There are a few things we can learn from. We missed a jump there at the start and the Roosters came up coming over the top of us.
‘‘It was a bit too late in the second half to fight our way back.’’
Surprisingly, Gavet wasn’t brought into the game until the 48th minute, coming on for Sam Lisone.
That stint was for 16min and he made another nine-minute appearance later in the game.
At the beginning of the season, Gavet appeared to be one of Stephen Kearney’s favoured props.
But when he was out with a hand injury, the Warriors coach went with Bunty Afoa and Agnatius Paasi as the props he likes to start games with.
Watching that first half on the sidelines must have been a frustrating experience for Gavet.
But even when he was on, there wasn’t much of a fightback from a team that has now lost three of their last five games.
Losing is one thing, but not scoring any points makes any defeat look worse.
‘‘Apart from the points on the board, or the win or the loss, we find that if the game starts running away from us a bit too much, then we go away from what we’ve learnt and put into our plans,’’ Gavet said. ‘‘When we come away from our process, we start playing off-the-cuff footy, which is just freestyle, and it doesn’t work for anyone on their day. If we can trust in the process, like we have in the past when we’ve been down in the first half, then we can manage to fight back.’’
Roosters captain Boyd Cordner said their focus wasn’t to go out looking for revenge after the Warriors beat them 30-4 earlier in the season, but was just to be as good as they could be. ‘‘We were just focused on this game,’’ Cordner said.
‘‘Everyone knows how hard it is to come over here. To get the win, especially against a quality outfit, I just thought it was a good performance.
‘‘We know that their forward pack has been really powerful all year. GETTY IMAGES
‘‘This week was just about us and not too much about the Warriors. We know we’ve got a lot more in us than we showed at the start of the year.
‘‘We tapped into that and brought it out. Although we got the win, we’ve got a lot to improve on.
‘‘To get the zero was really pleasing, although it was good to see our attack gel.’’