Rugby League: Warriors beat Roosters 21-14

By PETER JESSUP

The big Warrior forwards laid a formidable foundation for this season when they set up a 21-14 win over the more-fancied Sydney City Roosters today.

The visitors offered little on attack other than the bomb, playmaker Brad Fittler was closed down and only their halfback, Craig Wing, made any impression against tight defence.

The Warriors, on the contrary, ran penalties that could have been kicked, ran on the fifth tackle and three times were pulled down close to the line. They offered a variety the Roosters couldn't cope with.

Fittler said the home team had played smart football.

"They took their chances and we missed ours."

The Warriors were fatigued at the end of a first 40 minutes in which they had enjoyed a sets-of-six advantage of 21-13. It looked like the bye in round one might have cost them critical sharpness and match fitness.

They had to play 75 minutes a man short on the interchange after wing Shontayne Hape was carried off with a badly twisted knee - their only low-light in front of a good crowd of 14,378.

Hape had snared the Roosters' first sixth-tackle bomb, 10m out from, and to the right of, the posts.

It was the sort of ball that used to get dropped and lead to the opponents' first try, but Hape set the tone when he took it securely. Seconds later, he was bent in a two-directions two-man tackle.

Hape will have an MRI scan tomorrow, but x-rays showed there was no break. He said afterwards that he felt it was a dislocation, meaning maybe a couple of weeks out, rather than a ligament tear that might curtail his game for a few months.

Ali Lauiti'iti scored the first try to set up a 14-4 lead at the interval, and settled things with his second three minutes after halftime.

The Roosters' Craig Wing was ever elusive, making big ground from dummy-half and he scored between the posts late in the game, setting up a possible 20-20 draw.

But then the Roosters bombed two out wide as Ryan Cross stepped into touch with the line open and Justin Hodges threw a pass that missed its mark and went out.

The Warriors played cleverly to the end, closing out the game with repeat sets of six on the opposition line, then setting Stacey Jones for a field goal which nailed the win.

Roosters coach Ricky Stuart blamed bad option-taking and defence out wide, and said his team had held their own everywhere else on the park. He was the only one who believed that.

New Warriors skipper Monty Betham said he told his troops that every round one-winning team had dominated in the forwards.

Leading them up the tunnel pre-game he shouted "the pack, the pack, the pack," a catch-cry they sustained through the game when tired and pressured.

His boss, Daniel Anderson, was beaming.

"We were struggling in the last 30 minutes, but they hung in there, and hopefully that's a reflection of a new mental toughness."

Fittler had not been given space to work.

But the Roosters, equally, had stifled Jones' game and that of newcomer P. J. Marsh.

Marsh's debut was satisfactory, Anderson said. "I think you'll see him improve week by week."

On today's performance, there is every reason to expect the Warriors to sustain it against Newcastle at home on Easter Monday.