Warriors need to ‘start winning the arm wrestle’ after ruck woes
Captain Tohu Harris says the Warriors must start “winning the arm wrestle again’’ and lift their defence after losing the ruck in their recent NRL slump.
The 27-24 Anzac Day capitulation to the Gold Coast Titans was the Warriors’ second loss on the bounce following a 22-22 draw with the Manly Sea Eagles.
Harris and coach Andrew Webster didn’t paper over the cracks in their post-match analysis after the Warriors missed 43 tackles – 30 in the first half – and conceded five consecutive tries before their own late two-try revival.
A “gutted” Webster said the Warriors have “got to get back to being us and we’re not at the moment’’.
Harris wouldn’t admit the Warriors were in a hole, but he said they had “let ourselves down” through errors or straying “outside our principles’’. We need to fix our ruck control so we can put ourselves in better situations defensively.”
The skipper said the Warriors had “gone away from what we do well’’ in the last three games. We’ve seen us go away from building pressure, gone away from playing the long game and getting our arm wrestles and trying to break teams down.
“Whether it’s errors or making poor decisions with the ball, missed tackles and things like that, defensively we’re not staying in that arm wrestle mode that we do well ... when we’re sticking to our principles.”
Webster said it was “pretty obvious’’ the Warriors were not playing well. ”The boys aren’t hiding it, I’m not hiding it.“
He lamented his side going from “12-0 up and dominating’’ to committing errors that turned the game in the Titans’ favour.
The Warriors watched the Titans rattle on 27 unanswered points before rallying in the last quarter with tries to Addin FonuaBlake (his second of the match) and Rocco Berry.
Webster felt Berry was going to get another try – ruled out by Bunker officials after multiple replays show the ball glanced forward off Dallin Watene-zelezniak.
“I was hoping it was a try.. My initial reaction was I thought that we were going to get that.’’
A green light from the Bunker would have given the Warriors a win they scarcely deserved across the 80 minutes.
Webster acknowledged as much, crediting the Titans defence for desperation with the way “they jammed the outside in’’ on their own line when the Warriors ”threw some decent options at them’’.
While Webster wasn’t worried about the Warriors’ attack, he acknowledged defence was an issue.he did, however, single out prop Mitch Barnett for praise when he came back on in the second half, saying he “tackled unbelievably and changed the momentum defensively’’.
Prior to that there had been too many turnstile-type tackles which gave the Titans the space to get in behind the Warriors’ defensive line.
While Harris will welcome the chance for some family time and a 10-day lag before the Warriors’ visit to the Newcastle Knights, he said “you’ve got to ... use this time wisely so that come Monday we’ve got the energy and the want to make those improvements.’’