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Skipper Steve Price is rapt to have bragging rights within the family after the New Zealand Warriors' hard-earned victory over National Rugby League premiers Brisbane.
Price grabbed his second try in two weeks as the Warriors downed the Broncos 24-14 in Auckland yesterday.
But the prop was also featured in some push-and-shove with brother-in-law Brent Tate after a tackle.
The incident came to nothing, but Price quipped afterwards that maybe he should have made more of it.
"Actually, I would've just liked to have put one on his chin to see what he did," he said.
The problem was, if he had done that, "I would be straight out of the family circle, so I had to be careful".
But Price will be taking the opportunity to remind Tate of the match result over the next few days with a few phone calls.
"We don't play the 'Bronx' again this year, so it's going to be good fun."
Toppling the Broncos meant the Warriors won their first two opening matches of a season for the first time in their history.
But they ended up having to grind out a victory that earlier had seemed to be coming much easier.
Late in the first half at Mt Smart Stadium, they took control with some razzle-dazzle football, scoring four tries in 11 minutes to turn a 10-2 deficit into a 24-10 lead.
Two of the tries went to winger Michael Crockett, who has now scored four times in two appearances for his new club.
However, despite having a territorial advantage in the second spell, the Warriors could not kick on.
They were kept scoreless by a determined Brisbane side, who closed the gap to 10 points with a Tate try with more than half an hour to go.
The contest ended with four players on report -- Warriors Lance Hohaia and Wade McKinnon, and Broncos Tonie Carroll and Petero Civoniceva, the stand-in skipper for the injured Darren Lockyer.
All were for high or dangerous tackles.
Another feature was the three play-the-ball penalties referee Paul Simpkins whistled against the Broncos, continuing a trend evident in matches over the two rounds of the season so far.
Price believed the reason for the number of players on report was simply that timing in the tackle was off early in the season.
Meanwhile, he backed the move to make players play the ball correctly and not just roll it back with their hand.
"It's an integral part of the game," he said.
"It's what you learn when you are six years old. You're there to play the ball properly."
Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett agreed with Price on early-season tackle technique, saying he did not feel there was any malice in the incidents yesterday.
As for the play-the-ball infringements, Bennett said the issue had arisen now because referees had not policed the area properly before.
"Everybody who plays rugby league knows the rules of play-the-ball -- they've been there for as long as I've been in the game," he said.
"All the things that become issues in the game are because they don't ref to the rules. All of a sudden it's, 'Let's clean up play-the-balls'.
"What I'm disappointed about is that we've allowed it to deteriorate to this position for a long time."
After two matches at home, the Warriors now have away trips to last year's beaten grand finalists, Melbourne, and to Manly.
- NZPA
