Warriors overcome Eels
The Warriors have recorded consecutive victories for the first time this season with a disciplined display against Parramatta at Mt Smart.
The Auckland outfit stepped up a notch from last week’s win over the Titans, producing by far their best defensive performance under Stephen Kearney to register a 22-10 win.
It was by no means perfect, with team still guilty of a couple of lapses of concentration.
But with two daunting back-toback road trips to Canberra and Melbourne in the next fortnight, they at least have some momentum following a stuttering start to their campaign.
Up against his former club for the first time since last year’s shock exit to address personal issues, Kieran Foran struggled to
get into the game early but he still finished with two try assists, including making the crucial play in the second half that sealed the game.
Riding a 95 per cent completion rate in the first half, the Warriors’ victory was set up through a threetry burst before the break to take a 16-6 lead.
They controlled the ruck speed, with outside backs Roger TuivasaSheck, David Fusitu’a, Ken Maumalo and Solomone Kata regularly denting the Eels’ line.
However, Kearney’s men have developed a habit of conceding easy tries this season.
And that trend continued in the 20th-minute when Nathan Brown split them down the middle off a simple inside ball to open the scoring.
It could only be described as soft but the Warriors responded in the best possible way to dominate the rest of the half.
Their first try was slightly fortuitous with Bodene Thompson pouncing on a deflected Shaun Johnson grubber.
There was nothing lucky about the next two, though, with Foran setting up Mannering on left edge before Thompson grabbed a second courtesy of a smart inside pass by Blake Ayshford.
Having been near-perfect in the first half, three errors to start the second by the Warriors invited the Eels back into the contest.
It took them just five minutes to reduce the deficit when Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was carried into touch close to his goalline and the Warriors’ inability to shut down the offload saw Josh Hoffman cross in the corner.
Corey Norman was denied shortly after due to obstruction, while only some desperate cover defence from Tuivasa-Sheck and Fusitu’a prevented Semi Radradra from going over.
But having absorbed all that pressure, it was the Warriors who struck next with Foran making the crucial play.
After a quiet first half, the star stand-off charged down the blindside, shrugging off a tackle and sending Maumalo away.
The Eels had several chances to hit back from then, but the sting had disappeared form their attack.