Warriors captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck calls for his team to stick to the game plan as the Rabbitohs loom. Video / Warriors / NRL
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck believes the week ahead will be a time for the Warriors to put lessons into action.
The Kiwi outfit rode a wave of emotions over the past fortnight, first holding the St George Illawarra Dragons to nil before being held scoreless themselves by the Penrith Panthers.
Tuivasa-Sheck admittedthe side "fell into a trap of really enjoying our win against the Dragons" and it showed against the Panthers. Now, after Friday night's 37-26 win over the North Queensland Cowboys, the lessons learnt in the previous fortnight can be applied right away leading into next week's clash against the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
"We have a challenge in front of us," Tuivasa-Sheck said. "It's about being consistent and sticking to the game plan next week. We know we fell into a trap of really enjoying our win against the Dragons. Now it's about getting ready to travel again; we're going away so it's about getting those small things right.
"It's a real challenge for us; how can we go from having a real high to sustaining that and building on it, and then build on it again?
"(It's about) getting all the little things right building into the game and trusting that what we do works."
For a team who could only muster four tries in the opening four rounds of the NRL, the Warriors could have tricked anyone into believing they were one of the competition's highest-scoring sides with their performance against the Cowboys.
The Warriors attack was a cohesive and purposeful unit. The forwards ran hard lines, the halves asked questions of the defence and the backs came through with the finishing touches. By fulltime, the side had added seven tries to their season tally.
"Just being on the same page, that's been our biggest weapon to be honest; having that same mindset of playing footy through the middle and building pressure," Tuivasa-Sheck said. "Most of our points came from the back ends of our sets, so that's us showing patience and sticking to the game plan.
"That last game against Penrith, it goes out the window our game plan when you don't stand through the middle, you don't complete your sets and it's such a different game."
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck beats a tackle against the North Queensland Cowboys. Photo / Photosport
While the attack was on song all evening, Tuivasa-Sheck didn't overlook some of the defensive issues his side had.
Despite the good work they were able to do, which included holding superstar Cowboys lock Jason Taumalolo to a season low 123 metres, they were too often guilty of letting the Cowboys in too easily. This was a particular issue after the halftime break, as the Cowboys scored two fairly easy tries within 10 minutes of the restart.
"We've got to understand that if we're leading going into halftime, the opposition is going to come out with fire in their bellies," Tuivasa-Sheck said.
"If we make an error, that's going to happen, but we have be able to turn around and defend it.
"To have them score tries like that over us, it's something we have to fix straight away."
