Warriors coach Andrew Webster calls for defensive improvement ...

In what can only be described as a night to forget for the Warriors, coach Andrew Webster and captain Tohu Harris didn’t mince their words after a disappointing 30-12 defeat at the hands of the St George Illawarra Dragons last night.

The match started with a hiss and a roar for the Auckland-based club, taking an early 6-0 lead. However, that spark soon fizzled out as the Dragons unleashed a relentless assault, scoring five unanswered tries to leave the Warriors stunned and struggling to find their footing.

The Warriors’ effort was a complete surprise to Webster who thought the team had prepared well this week and couldn’t hide his disappointment post-match.

“The only thing I can say is off the back of some hard footy we’ve had that maybe it was due. We pulled out a lot of measures to make sure they were prepared for this game mentally, we had a good time of travel, enjoyed each other’s company, and trained well.

“Obviously can’t do too much on a six-day turnaround but the Dragons had a five-day turnaround so there’s no excuses there. We’ve had three or four hard games in a row so it could have been coming but I certainly didn’t see any signs of it.

“There are definitely moments that can hurt. But we want to be the team that when things don’t go our way we find a way to get back in the fight, slow it down, get the momentum back. We work so hard and talk a lot about it. You can’t have a poor attitude around errors when things don’t go your way and we’ll work on that.

“There’s not a lot technically [to work on] this week, we’ve got to work on our attitude defensively and wanting to do it together.”

The defensive lapses were particularly concerning for Webster, who highlighted the team’s inability to counter the Dragons’ momentum, as evidenced by the effort when Zac Lomax crossed over early in the second half.

“They got an opportunity to put an attacking kick in because they just rolled us down the field. If you have a great defensive set it’s going to be a long kick and an easy transition for us but it was a hard transition. Lomax is a threat in the air, all week we spoke about it, and we gave them, in the first set, an attacking kick and that summed up our defence tonight.”

Harris echoed Webster’s sentiments, acknowledging the Dragons’ physical dominance and the Warriors’ inability to match it.

“They ran so hard all night long and I thought at the start of the game we had some good moments defending that, and a few opportunities down their end through our defence, but they did it for longer. We stopped working well and lost that physical battle the longer the game went. They’ve got players that run hard and players that can pull teams apart off the back of it so you can’t afford to give a team like that that much momentum.”

Despite the disappointing result, Webster remained optimistic about the team’s future, particularly with the recent signing of Kiwis captain and Penrith Panthers powerhouse James Fisher-Harris.

“You want them to come when you sign them. He’s a great player but it’s next year. When you do recruitment for the future you want to lock it away and move on quickly. He’s a great player but we’ve got great players here right now that we want to do something this year. I want to move on and focus on that.”

Webster also emphasised the need for immediate improvement and a quick turnaround with another tough match against the Gold Coast Titans looming large next week on Anzac Day at Go Media Stadium Mt Smart.

“Every coach wants a team that can limit discipline errors and concentration but they also want a team that can stand up and fight through those periods and I didn’t think we did that the way we wanted to.

“It’s a six-day turnaround so boys are going to get to play soon and make it right, which is really cool because I know they’re really disappointed in the way they went tonight.”

For just the second time in the club’s history, the Warriors play their annual Anzac Day match at home when they host the Titans at Go Media Stadium on Thursday at 4pm.

The last time the Warriors staged an Anzac Day contest was in 2015 – also against Gold Coast – to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.

Luke Kirkness is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He previously covered consumer affairs for the Herald and was an assistant news director in the Bay of Plenty. He won Student Journalist of the Year in 2019.