The Eels started without talismanic captain Nathan Hindmarsh, who was ruled out with a virus, and they lost star fullback Jarryd Hayne to a knee injury inside 15 minutes.
Hayne's departure on a stretcher left the Eels lacking the strike to dent a determined if slightly erratic Warriors side, although halfback Chris Sandow did his best to engineer what would have been an upset.
Having conceded 16 points without reply in their opening encounter with Manly last week, the Warriors would have been keen to avoid digging themselves another early hole.
But early strife was what they encountered, with the Eels controlling possession for the opening 10 minutes and torching the Warriors' defence on either flank for rapid fire tries to wingers Ken Sio and Cheyse Blair.
Sandow's missed conversions limited the damage, and when Feleti Mateo scored next to the posts from an Elijah Taylor offload on the side's first meaningful attack the Warriors were just two points adrift.
Then came what proved the decisive moment of the match. Hayne, who had already created a try with a slick pass, pounced on Nathan Friend's ill-directed grubber.
Having beaten the cover Hayne seemed likely to race 90 metre for a breakaway try. Instead he tumbled to the ground just 20 metres into his run after hearing his knee pop. Initial assessments suggested the injury may not be serious, however Hayne was certainly done for the night.
The momentum swing was immediate, and Bill Tupou crossed minutes later for a try that put the Warriors in front for the first time.
When Hurrell surged over direct from a close-range scrum it seemed the Warriors would run away with the contest. Having run directly over Ben Roberts and bashed his way past two more defenders, Hurrell may have been forgiven for thinking this NRL caper was a doddle.
Such thoughts would have been quickly erased by Sandow's shoulder. The nuggety Eels halfback hammered Hurrell five metres out from the Warriors' line, jolting the ball free and scooping it up to scoot over for a try that halted the Warriors' run.
Sandow's intervention meant the Eels trailed by only four at the break, but the tide inexorably turned the Warriors' way after the restart. the first 20 minutes of the half were scoreless, but the Warriors' physical dominance was taking its toll.
Having pushed the Eels back relentlessly, the Warriors finally struck with a try perhaps only they could have scored. They shifted the ball to both flanks, keeping it alive through an outrageous Ben Matulino offload and a scrambling, crawling bust from Kevin Locke. James Maloney finally straightened the attack to cross near the posts.
Once again it was Sandow who got the Eels back in it after Vatuvei had been penalised for a high tackle on Willie Tonga. The Eels pressed for a winner only to be undone by the reborn Vatuvei, who climbed superbly to defuse a bomb under huge pressure at one end of the field before setting up Locke's match-clincher with a break at the other.
