Gold Coast Titans 14
The two points they banked with yesterday's impressive win over the Gold Coast Titans in Robina will keep the Warriors on the brink of the top eight, but the full benefit of the result won't be felt for another three weeks.
That's when the Warriors will enjoy a bye they
have typically taken during the Anzac test week. This season, having asked their Kiwis representatives to play through the pain barrier and turn out twice in 48 hours, the Warriors now find themselves with a bye up their sleeves.
It means Simon Mannering, Lewis Brown, Lance Hohaia and Ben Matulino will get some valuable time off later in the season.
Coach Ivan Cleary was happy with his team's situation.
NRL standings
"It was a tough weekend for them this weekend; they can now look forward to breaking up the season a bit more," Cleary said of his test players. "It was a big decision to not have a bye this weekend. It was aimed around the game initially being in Christchurch, so for the boys to get through and all back up and play well and get the win, yeah, I'm very happy."
Led by superb efforts from rising star Elijah Taylor and Kevin Locke - who made the most of a rare chance to play fullback - the Warriors produced their most expansive, impressive display of the season to break a six-match losing run against the Titans.
The match also saw Manu Vatuvei return from the knee injury suffered in round one, although the winger was far from his best.
The Warriors made the most of the superb weather, dry field and enthusiastic support of a crowd dominated by expatriate Kiwis to run the Titans ragged. Their third win in a row put them on the right side of the win-loss ledger for the first time this season.
The withdrawal of Aaron Heremaia for personal reasons led to a reshuffle, with Locke switching to fullback, Alehana Mara starting at hooker and Hohaia coming off the bench.
Locke's kick-return game was a constant thorn in the Titans' side, while backrower Taylor scored a try and created another in a remarkably mature performance considering it was just his fifth NRL match.
Speedy wing David Mead scored a hat-trick for the Titans but overall it was hard to disagree with coach John Cartwright's description of his side as "diabolical" for much of the match.
Preston Campbell, so often the match-winner against the Warriors, had a shocker. His fumbles under the high ball led to two Warriors tries, while an attempted short drop-out resulted in another.
The Warriors scored early through Brown, but were then rocked by two Mead tries as Vatuvei's defence was exposed. But Titans lock Ashley Harrison shelled a kickoff and Vatuvei hit straight back to put the Warriors in front. Tries to Mannering and an opportunistic effort from Taylor - who played on when Titans centre Esi Tonga was caught flat-footed, believing a tackle had been completed - put the Warriors in command at halftime.
The Titans ramped up their effort in the second half, with Mead completing his hat-trick after a neat short-side move, but the game turned for the final time when Krisnan Inu found the sidelines with a line drop out to get his side out of a deepening hole.
Taylor then punished Campbell's attempted short drop out by producing a neat short ball for James Maloney to score. The dagger blow came from yet another calamitous blunder, with Maloney exposing the dozing Titans to race away to score from a quick Locke tap restart on the Warriors' 20m line.
