NRL: Few pluses in battle of dumb and dumber

The Warriors displayed hands like feet whenever they were invited to do some damage to an equally poor Tigers side. Photo / Getty Images

Sunday's Mt Smart opener against the champion St George Illawarra Dragons looms as a desperate affair for a Warriors side that slumped to an ugly, error-ridden second straight NRL defeat, against the Tigers in Sydney on Saturday night.

There were positives sprinkled throughout an opening-round defeat by the Eels at Eden Park that could be chalked up to stage fright, some dubious officiating and an aberrant night's work by the back three. The same couldn't be said on Saturday night, when the Warriors missed over 50 tackles and displayed hands like feet whenever they were invited to do some damage to an equally poor Tigers side. A sparkling try on debut to Krisnan Inu and another rampaging effort from Lewis Brown were about the only high notes for the Warriors. The rest of the contest was an out-and-out bummer.

Stand-in five-eighth Isaac John struggled to find his feet - or use them to much effect - before succumbing to a second-half ankle injury. Senior halfback Brett Seymour wasn't much better, slipping off 10 tackles and failing to inject any sense of calm into a team that needed only to perform averagely to win.

A first half 'try' to Feleti Mateo that was overlooked when Tony Archer and Alan Shortall failed to consult the video replay didn't help matters, coach Ivan Cleary said.

"The referee could not have been closer, his head was down and he was looking about two metres away from it," Cleary said. "He is obviously accountable for that. But we've had a few things go against us like that and that was obviously a pretty big one. The sort of game it was, it would have been bloody handy. But what do you do about it?"

Overall the Warriors could have few complaints with the officials. The match came down to which of two bad teams would find a way to lose. The Warriors finally achieved that when Seymour drifted off Robbie Farah, allowing the hooker to step his way under the posts to put his side in front with 12 minutes remaining.

Until then the Warriors had led through a powerful first half finish from captain Simon Mannering and a remarkable try that Inu set-up with some nifty footwork and finished with an extravagant dummy and dive over from dummy-half.

Those tries and two Seymour conversions had overturned Chris Lawrence's 33rd minute opener.

Handed several gilt-edged chances to increase their lead to a decisive margin by the equally fumble-prone Tigers, the Warriors never really threatened, typically handing the ball back to the Tigers on the first or second tackle.

Blake Ayshford's 62nd minute try and a botched Benji Marshall conversion pulled the Tigers within two points before Farah put them ahead. Lawrence's second with eight minutes remaining killed off any thought of a comeback, consigning the Warriors a second straight loss.

Clearly lamented his side's inability to get the basics right, but he doesn't expect to make many changes for the Dragons match.

"I always consider what the best make-up of the team will be and it is no different this week," Cleary said. "But it is early days, I'm not going to go for the noose or anything."

Their two defeats have done plenty to confound the rapidly diminishing sense of optimism that had surrounded the Warriors heading into the season. Yet to produce a genuine linebreak in open play, they have been stilted in the extreme on attack. Even allowing for a replacement five-eighth who is finding his way back from injury, the lack of cohesion displayed against the Tigers was alarming. The team's ability to work over teams around the ruck with relentless dummy-half running, a formula that succeeded last season, has also appeared limited.