Next up, they play the current NRL bums. The Panthers are in disarray. The Warriors should smash them.
No, no, no, no, no...to quote the esteemed Phil Gould
It doesn't work like that with the Warriors. Every victory is followed by lots of back slapping and the blowing of smoke in places where the sun doesn't shine.
Then they turn up half asleep and crash to defeat.
And you can see the danger signs already.
Coach Steve Kearney mentioned Nikorima — who has played all of one game for the club — in the same breath as Stacey Jones, who played about three zillion.
Nikorima underplayed his hand really smartly against the Dragons. And as Kearney says, the club could do with a dose of his zippy confidence.
But I'm not going to say that, nor anything else nice about them. No way.
Let's do the Warriors a favour and emphasise how lucky they were in the comeback win over the Dragons. They started really badly and for some reason the Dragons responded by falling into cruise mode.
Then little Ben Hunt had one of his infamous attacks of dropsies, just as the Dragons were about to mount a wave of attack. It wrecked the Dragons and energised the Warriors, no doubt about it.
Many eight year olds would have caught that ball. Even five year olds would have had a chance.
I mention that in the name of helping the Warriors.
Not hooked
TJ Perenara...clear off. Photo / Photosport
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
While Hurricanes halfback TJ Perenara was messing with the Blues scrum at Eden Park, the Sky commentators were drooling like they had wandered into a second hand shop and stumbled upon a Rembrandt.
Okay, so TJ was very clever, But the game isn't.
Big scrum battles are a great part of rugby. But this wasn't a big scrum battle. It was a big mess.
The scene was this. At a pivotal time in the game, the Blues were smashing in on the goal line but couldn't quite get their scrum to work properly and overcome the Hurricanes illegalities, which led to one yellow card being issued.
Meanwhile, Perenara was pushing the limits of the law, and stepping over them as well, creating a nuisance as the Blues struggled to clear the ball.
At one point, he stepped between Blues halfback Augustine Pulu and any intended receiver, way offside, waving an arm. Then he stepped back onside, as if nothing had happened even though he may clearly have affected the play.
Apparently this is all kosher. Maybe it was. But should it be?
Rugby wasn't the winner.
The name of the game should be encouraging clean ball from scrums, rather than allowing one pesky rule pusher to run amok and increase the chance of more scrums from knock ons.
Personally, I think Perenara got away with murder, partly because once the Blues were operating with penalty advantage, he knew he could do what he liked.
But if he was operating within the rules, then they are stupid rules.
The problem is compounded because at least one loose forward has to use some energy and detach slightly to keep someone like Perenara at bay and protect the ball, with further loss of scrum stability.
The old guard may love a crazy scrum duel. But it won't be a big seller down the line, when today's kids are adults who love basketball and anything else full of action on the internet.
Stuff like this — where the team who deserves the ball is at a confusing disadvantage — is not the way to keep an audience and win new ones.
And you wonder why kids are quitting rugby in droves, and crowd numbers in stadiums are at an embarrassing point for the national game.
A rule forcing scrum halves to keep clear would go some way to cleaning the problems up.
