Defence a weak spot

EARLIER this season the Warriors’ biggest problem was blowing games in the last 10 minutes; now it’s their poor defence on the right edge.

Warriors coach Matt Elliott concedes all of the other NRL teams know about this issue. So it will surprise no-one to see the Sea Eagles launch attack after attack to where Konrad Hurrell and Ngani Laumape are standing tomorrow.

The two players’ defensive deficiencies were exposed in the 18-14 loss to the Sharks on Saturday. They have been doing extra work to sort this out.

‘‘They’ve got stuff they need to improve on and they need to be responding to what they do at practice,’’ Elliott said.

‘‘There has been improvement there, but we’ve also sent an advertisement out to the competition that if you come at our right side consistently there will be some joy. We need to accept that.’’

With five games to go and the Warriors one point out of the top eight, tomorrow’s game against the Sea Eagles isn’t a must-win contest. But getting the victory against a side that has won its last five games is one of the toughest challenges left for the Warriors in 2013.

Kieran Foran, Justin Horo and Steve Matai are three of the Sea Eagles’ New Zealand players who’ve been in exceptional form lately.

‘‘What we do know about the opposition is that they don’t lack experience in big games and they’ll see this as a big game.

‘‘We’ve already proved that we’re a handful. We just need to make sure we bring that commitment,’’ Elliott said.

The Warriors have won just eight of their 24 previous encounters against the Sea Eagles.