NRL: Warriors still stewing over Tigers defeat

The Warriors looked set for a third consecutive win when they led 10-0 over the Tigers at halftime but were made to pay for some costly errors before going down 24-22. Photo / Getty Images.

A defeat like the one to the Wests Tigers last Friday night isn't easily forgotten and the Warriors have been left to "stew" about it for a little longer given they have the bye this week.

The Warriors looked set for a third consecutive win when they led 10-0 over the Tigers at halftime but were made to pay for some costly errors before going down 24-22.

What made it more galling was the fact it halted some of their momentum of the previous weeks, when they beat both the Broncos and Roosters and were starting to play more consistent football.

They will pick up two points for the bye this weekend but it would have been a much better week if they had banked another two against the Tigers, especially with the table-topping Melbourne Storm lying in wait next weekend.

"It would have been a lot nicer [to go in with a win]," coach Brian McClennan said. "What it has done is made us stew on it a bit more. It has probably steeled us and made us reflect on what we want to be.

"We were absolutely gutted by the result. We didn't put the sword to them when we could have. In the second half they completed 20 out of 20 sets, which a team can do in the NRL, and they made it hard for you to come back. Our fault was we had our foot on the throat and didn't do anything about it.

"It's part of our growth. Sometimes you learn your best lessons the hard way and that certainly was the case there. We put our hands up and said that wasn't good enough. We are going to be playing Melbourne, the most consistent team in the NRL over the last few years, and we have to do a damn sight better than we did against the Tigers."

McClennan is hopeful fullback Kevin Locke will be fit to play against the Storm. He was penned in to play for the Auckland Vulcans against Cronulla in Sydney on Saturday but has been scrubbed because he's still not over the sternum injury he sustained early in the 32-14 defeat to the Storm on Anzac day.

Glen Fisiiahi was decent against the Tigers in the absence of both Locke and the luckless Jerome Ropati but Locke was a consistently good player for the Warriors in their run to the grand final last year.

He's had a disrupted season, playing only six minutes since round four as firstly a corked thigh and then sternum injury kept him sidelined.

The bye gives him another week to recover and most of the NRL squad will be given four days off to "freshen up" both physically and mentally. It has come at a good time for many, including winger Manu Vatuvei who missed training today because of illness.

Hooker Nathan Friend is still four weeks away from a return from his broken jaw and Micheal Luck, who has missed the entire season with a broken hand, is targeting a return against Cronulla on June 16.