Warriors: Attacking equation boosted by halves

James Maloney and Isaac John. Photo / Greg Bowker

The Warriors are looking to the new 'John and James' halves combination of Isaac John and James Maloney with renewed hope ahead of today's crucial match with the Roosters in Christchurch.

Fans could have been forgiven for slumping into depression when Brett Seymour slipped into another injury absence recently. The loss of his combination with Maloney shaped as a season-deciding factor. The latter seemed to play well when Seymour was in the side but sometimes seemed to carry too much of a burden when he didn't.

But John's emergence has solved that. They combined well against the Dragons in that narrow loss and Maloney had a fine match against Newcastle before the bye, scoring 16 points with a try and six goals. John's strong performance in that match sparked Maloney and although the Roosters will be a different foe from the defence-challenged Knights, the John & James Show is still expected to be a crowd-pleaser.

At just 21, John's confident entry into senior ranks has been a bit of a surprise. At the beginning of the season, most of the talk centred on when the Warriors would introduce another youngster in the halves, the prodigiously talented Shaun Johnson.

While it is early days for John, he seems to have taken his chance and appears to be a well-adjusted, confident young man. He has shown his kicking game is up to standard, averaging 286 metres and, with just two games this season, has also produced a line break, a try assist and a try - suggesting that he will keep defences guessing with his attacking/kicking options.

That inexperienced John & James combination has just 21 NRL appearances between them, against relative veterans Mitchell Pearce and NRL third-top pointscorer Todd Carney, who have 158.

The Warriors' new combination has not gone unnoticed by Roosters coach Brian Smith: "John was talented even back when I watched him in the under-20s while Maloney has been threatening the last couple of years before grabbing this shot at the Warriors."

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary is pleased with how the pair has gelled: "They've performed admirably the last couple of matches. Yes, they've made some mistakes too but they've trained together for a month now. That's got to help."

John is wary of getting caught up in the NRL theatre now he is making regular first grade appearances.

"It doesn't really bother me. Once the whistle blows, it feels like just another game, only a bit quicker and tougher; but I never get too nervous.

"Carney's done some damage as a good ball runner and Pearce has a gun kicking game. He'll be my responsibility but I'm not going to stress the whole week about taking him on."

The Roosters have stopped using Carney at fullback for now as he moves into the number six jersey. It follows a stint at halfback two weeks ago in the win over the Storm when Pearce was on State of Origin duty.

In fact, kicking shapes as a key feature today. With skipper Braith Anasta moving to lock, the Roosters have numerous options with the boot and have been the competition's most accurate kicking side - according to nrl.com they find space with kicks 71 per cent of the time compared to the Warriors' 57 per cent.

Tries from the boot also make a curious case study. Expect the ball to go into the air as much as through the hands anywhere near the line. Both sides are in the bottom four of the competition for conceding tries through kicks but in the top five for getting them. Bombs are proving the biggest problem - the Warriors successfully defend just 36 per cent on their own line while the Roosters have a slightly better record at 50 per cent.

John says it is not the only thing the Warriors should be focusing on. The Roosters are second in the competition for line breaks and fourth for offloads.

"They've got backs like Sam Perrett and Shaun Kenny-Dowall who can get through a line anywhere and [interchange] forwards such as Mose Masoe and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves who give them attacking flair throughout."

As both sides come off 15th round byes, the season has reached what Smith simply refers to as "crunch time". The Roosters are sixth with 18 points; the Warriors 10th on 16. At the start of the round, two competition points either side of them spanned 11 teams.

Maloney says the Warriors have started looking towards how they guarantee a top eight spot.

"The question is: how many games do we need to win? 28 points is the general consensus as to what you need but you'd want 30 to be safe. That means winning seven of our last 11 matches although you don't want to be coming in the back door, winning five from five."

Neither team has the consistency to close the back door option. The Warriors have not strung three straight wins together since the 2008 finals series while last year's last-placed Roosters have alternated between a win and a loss in 11 of the 15 rounds this season. The current trend indicates a loss is due this week, but not if Smith can help it.

"We're at a critical point. We came into the bye week with a nice win [38-6] over the Storm but have only been able to back that up once this season. It is fast coming to a time for repercussions if we can't do it now."