League: Warriors pay for ignoring game plan

Warriors captain Steve Price was again an inspiration, often surging through the Wests Tigers' defence at Jade Stadium on Saturday night. Picture / Fotopress

Tigers 24 Warriors 6

Wests Tigers' scrambling defence was too good for the Warriors, who let in three second-half tries in wet conditions at Jade Stadium.

The Warriors slumped to their eighth loss in "home" games played outside Auckland. And are yet to win back-to-back since 2003.

They have not shown the consistency that playoff teams require and coach Tony Kemp admitted disappointment that the team departed from his game plan on Saturday.

"Wests Tigers didn't do anything we didn't expect. We lacked composure on offence. We didn't stick to the things we were told to do, there were too many blokes veering off on their own tangent."

Fullback Brent Webb was forced out of the game early with the disc problem that kept him out of the two previous games. He will see the doctors today for an assessment that will obviously shade his Kiwis chances.

Monty Betham and Tevita Latu are on report for a lifting tackle and high shot respectively, so further personnel adjustment is likely this week before the Warriors travel to Newcastle to play an injury-hit Knights side.

Few of the Warriors did their test prospects any good in Christchurch. Jerome Ropati's hands let him down, the best forwards were Australians Steve Price and Nathan Fien, while Karl Temata also made good metres. Clinton Toopi and Francis Meli had ordinary games.

By comparison Tigers centre Paul Whatuira played himself into the test side with two tries and a solid defensive performance and Benji Marshall again combined well with Scott Prince, who was the Tigers' star player. The pair now have a six-wins-from-six record when they've been on the field together.

Prince nailed the game with a 64th-minute try, stepping from 15m out, then landed a kick on wing Pat Richards in the 70th minute to kill any hopes the Warriors had of a revival.

Tigers coach Tim Sheens said after the match that he wanted the halfback to run more.

"He's gradually building his confidence to do that. His runs are quality so I'm going to shut up for a while, I suppose. He's got a great deceptive turn of pace and when he shows the ball to decoy runners and puts it on, he can surprise you."

Sheens said it was a game both sides needed to win. "We were playing a side that most people would say is at our level. Neither side started the year thinking top four as far as the bookies were concerned. You've got to win those games."

In their travels around New Zealand, the Warriors have failed to beat the Raiders, Bulldogs or Tigers in either Wellington or Christchurch. There were 18,421 people at Jade on Saturday night but what enthusiasm will there be for the next game there?

Kemp said he'd told the team after the match that there would be more tough, grind-it-out games like the one against the Tigers than there would be flashy displays like that against Souths the previous weekend. He thought they'd done a good job of containing Marshall, but Prince had killed them.

At first it was Whatuira doing the damage, touching down after a sixth-minute sideline run -a try ruled out when the video ref saw a boot on the chalk - then a 96m dash for points after he pounced on a loose ball.

Prince's kicking game began to tell and wing Daniel Fitzhenry got over, but was also denied by video ref Phil Cooley. Fien got over the line for the Warriors but was held up as the half closed with both sides making some good defensive saves and also some errors as the rain increased.

Whatuira scored his second try just two minutes into the second half from an off-load by former Aucklander and Junior Kiwi Bronson Harrison, who was in good form for the Tigers. Whatuira stepped Webb and the Warriors fullback was replaced, obviously not right.

The Warriors then mounted attack after attack on the Tigers' line and eventually Todd Byrne profited after a big bust by Iafeta Paleaaesina. With Stacey Jones converting, it was 12-6 and anyone's game.

Then Prince stepped up to claim the game, he and Marshall running players into holes on the angle. They hammered the right side, targeting Lance Hohaia who made a huge 22 tackles for a five-eighth and dropping kicks on Byrne, most of which he covered. Eventually the tries came. Fullback Brett Hodgson converted all of them and took his 2005 goal-kicking record to 18 from 18.

Frustrated, the Warriors tried to put too much into their tackles as the game slipped away, with Latu on report for a high shot on Anthony Laffranchi and Betham for a lifting tackle on Todd Payten.

Kemp said they'd had a good lesson in what sticking to the game plan can achieve.