Rugby League: 'Nightmare' loss infuriates Graham

By Peter Jessup

You wouldn't want to be Mark Graham's foot or an Auckland Warrior's backside right now, as the two appear bound for much heavy contact this week given Graham's mood after yesterday's loss to Sydney City.

The Warriors were lethargic, lacking ideas, lacking leadership and lacking a kicking game as they went from a creditable 4-4 hold at halftime to a 14-28 loss.

The score was made respectable by two late tries when the Roosters looked sure winners and relaxed their awesome defence. Coach Graham described his side's performance as "like revisiting a nightmare from last year," but struggled for reasons why.

Stacey Jones was clearly off his game, the coach not sure if contract negotiations had distracted him, but wasn't blaming just his half.

"We didn't kick for field position, there were two times we were caught in possession on the fifth tackle and we must have trained about that 500 times. We didn't back up, we didn't offer the defence decoy runners - you name it, we did it wrong."

The Roosters did not have to do much to keep out an attack short on inspiration, Graham said. But it was defence that won them the game - that and the kicking errors. Sydney City's forwards had a half-tank of petrol after the turnaround; the Warriors looked like they were running on empty.

The game was anyone's until the sixth minute. After a weight of territory and possession to the Warriors that should have produced points, Roosters skipper Brad Fittler produced the step that broke the line, then signalled how hard that had been by head-butting the ball at the terraces crowd.

It was a turning point, all right. The Warriors' heads went progressively down from there, the walk they repeated back to the halfway line took progressively longer as the visitors piled on another three workmanlike efforts generated by machine-like, mistake-free football.

Their coach, Phil Gould, still rated the Warriors, saying they were better than last year, well-coached and would win plenty of games.

But his side had gone 236 minutes of football without having a try scored against them, and then it was via a kick - Nigel Vagana gathering a rebound off Lee Oudenryn after a Jones bomb.

Kiwi coach Frank Endacott found himself in the unfamiliar territory of the press box and jokingly said he was seeking advice on candidates for the Anzac test. He would not have needed much room in the notebook, Quentin Pongia the only name worth indelible ink on yesterday's form.

Richie Barnett, carried off in the 35th minute, suffered a neck burn in a three-way tackle and went to hospital for x-rays but was expected to be OK, if left with a brace for some days.

So it's back to basics, back to the game plan this week in preparation for an away assignment against Wayne Pearce's improved Balmain outfit next Saturday night.

"I'm very, very angry about the crap we served up to our fans and we'll be addressing that in training this week," Graham said.

Glad I'm not a Warrior.

Sydney City 28 (Jack Elsegood, Brad Fittler, Andrew Walker, Robert Miles 2 tries, Walker four con) Auckland 14 (Nigel Vagana, Odell Manuel tires, Matthew Ridge 2 pen, con). Halftime: 4-4.