NRL: Litany of second-half errors proves costly for Warriors

Referee Adam Gee places Bodene Thompson of the Warriors on report during the round seven NRL match between Raiders and Warriors. Photo / Getty Images

The Warriors are still working to develop a clinical mindset and eradicate the basic errors that contributed to their 20-8 NRL defeat to the Canberra Raiders on Saturday.

The Warriors made only four mistakes in a dominant first half that saw them lead 8-6 at the break, but dropped their standards to cough up 13 errors and concede 14 unanswered points in the second half at GIO Stadium.

After building confidence with back-to-back home wins over the Gold Coast Titans and Parramatta Eels, the Warriors looked capable of continuing their rise against one of the competition's true heavyweights, before some bad habits crept back into their play.

Coach Stephen Kearney lamented his side's tendency to fall off the pace, as they continue to search for the consistency required to make them genuine top-eight contenders.

"Every week, I feel we're taking a step to where we want to go," said Kearney. "Sometimes, it's half a step backwards and then it's another step forwards, so we have a process that we want to keep working at and improving.

"I see that in the guys, in the way they go about preparing and, even tonight, there was some really good effort out there. We just made it really difficult on ourselves.

"Through the second half, we had 42 per cent completion, coupled with five penalties to zero, so it goes hand in hand.

"You make life pretty difficult for yourself like that."

The Warriors' lead could have been greater, but for a lack of finishing, and two disallowed tries to captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and centre Solomone Kata just before halftime.

Wing Ken Maumalo was judged to have knocked-on in the lead up to Kata's no-try and was harshly pinged again in the second-half for an incorrect play-the-ball.

Despite those setbacks, the Warriors' fragile right-edge defence struggled to contain powerful Canberra centre Joseph Leilua, who made yards with every carry and brushed off weak tackles from both Kata and Maumalo to score two tries going into the second and final quarters.

However, the rub of the green continued the way of the home side, when an apparent strip from hooker Josh Hodgson went unpunished and he ducked over from dummy half to seal the result, with the Raiders' third try in the 66th minute.

"We probably spent too much time, particularly in the second half, on our try-line and gave them too many shots at us," said Kearney. "We only had two good-ball sets in the second half, so it's pretty hard to win footy games like that, giving the opposition a heap of sets on your try-line."

Meanwhile, back-rower Bodene Thompson has been hit with a grade-one dangerous contact charge, after being placed on report for a forearm to the head of Raiders halfback Aidan Sezer in the 74th minute.

The incident cost the Warriors two points off the boot of Canberra captain Jarrod Croker.

Thompson can avoid suspension with an early guilty plea and would be free to play Melbourne on Anzac Day.