League: Warriors crash to heavy loss to Broncos

The Warriors lost their first game of the NRL season 26-10 in front of 25,000 spectators at Mt Smart Stadium. Photo / Getty Images.

The New Zealand Warriors' promising start to the National Rugby League season came to a halt tonight when they fell to a disappointing 26-10 defeat to the Brisbane Broncos in Auckland.

The Broncos, who climbed to the top of the table, were impressive in an encounter between two unbeaten sides, with halfback Peter Wallace influential in guiding his teammates around the park.

Despite plenty of support from a large crowd of more than 24,000, the Warriors made too many mistakes and lacked enough finesse in attack to break down a solid defence.

Club legend Stacey Jones was introduced eight minutes before halftime, but the champion halfback wasn't able to engineer a comeback as he did stunningly against Manly last weekend.

Defeat ended a notable streak for the Warriors, who hadn't been beaten in their previous seven matches at Mt Smart Stadium.

There was also the debilitating news that centre Brent Tate will miss the rest of the season after limping off with a serious knee injury.

Australian international Tate's woes add to a handful of injury casualties from the first two rounds.

There was plenty of encouragement for the home fans early on, with the Warriors having the better of the opening exchanges.

However, it was the the Broncos who went ahead in the 12th minute, with Wallace twice playing a hand.

The New South Wales Origin representative set up former Junior Kiwi Ben Te'o on a big run that was stopped just out from the line.

On the next tackle, Wallace produced a clever grubber into the in-goal that prop Joel Clinton pounced on.

There was worse for the Warriors from the restart when winger Denan Kemp put the kick-off out on the full for the second week in a row.

From their ensuing possession, the Broncos got repeat sets before Wallace unleashed a superb cut-out pass for centre Steve Michaels to cross over.

The home side struggled to show fluency when they had the ball and also came up against some combative defence, such as in the 24th minute when Tate's dab for the corner was snuffed out.

Tate, who finished without the ball, stayed down clutching his right knee and needed to be helped from the field.

Four minutes before the break, the Warriors looked to have got on the scoreboard finally when five-eighth Joel Moon jinked his way to the line, but was ruled to committed a double movement in planting the ball down.

From there, the Broncos broke downfield, with giant rampaging prop Dave Taylor creating a try for centre Israel Folau to take the visitors to a 16-0 halftime lead.

The Warriors had a let-off early in the second half when the Broncos had a try ruled out for taking a defender out.

But there was no mistake minutes later when a Darren Lockyer pass set substitute Alex Glenn away for his side's fourth touchdown, before Lockyer himself got on the scoresheet.

Down 26-0, the Warriors finally got on the board midway through the second half, second rower Simon Mannering going over from a Jones pass.

With 10 minutes to go, there was another consolation involving two of the club's youngsters, prop Russell Packer's charge finished off by bullocking substitute Ukuma Ta'ai.

- NZPA