Boyd has been tremendous for the Warriors early in the season both with his kicking game and running the ball, while the return of captain Mitchell Barnett was a welcome lift as he hit the ground as though he’d had the date circled on his calendar for a long time.
Though the same could be said for just about all the forwards for the Warriors. There was plenty to like from the men up front, who ran hard and direct at the Newcastle line and were rewarded with their fair share of the tries; Erin Clark scoring his first for the Warriors and Jackson Ford and James Fisher-Harris also crossing the chalk.
Capped off with an 80th-minute try to debutant five-eighth Luke Hanson, it’s a performance the Warriors can take plenty out of as they move on to what shapes up as a testing three-game stretch, with the Wests Tigers (home), the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks (away) and the Melbourne Storm (away) their next three assignments.
The Warriors have not panicked early in the season when things haven’t gone their way, and that was again a theme of their performance when the Knights – without three key members of their spine in Kalyn Ponga, Fletcher Sharpe and Dylan Brown – scored the first try of the match through Fletcher Hunt in the fourth minute.
The Warriors then lost English import Morgan Gannon to a head knock in the fifth minute. It’s a worrying way for the 22-year-old to begin his NRL career, particularly given the second-rower missed the entire 2024 Super League season after suffering multiple concussions late in the 2023 season.
Clark’s try in the 12th minute, beautifully laid on by Boyd, got the ball rolling for the visitors, and with tries to Ford and centre Leka Halasima, they held a comfortable lead at the break.
The Knights found themselves a man down late in the first half after Hunt was sin-binned due to the team’s repeated infringements defending their goal line.
Tries to Fisher-Harris and Boyd within three minutes of each other in the second half broke the game open and while the Knights showed some fight late in the second stanza and scored through Greg Marzhew, it was the Warriors’ day.
The Knights finished with a man in the sin bin after Trey Mooney was marched for a poor challenge on Boyd, while the Warriors had the final say through rookie Hanson, who was gifted a try by fullback Taine Tuaupiki.
Warriors 38 (Erin Clark, Jackson Ford, Leka Halasima, James Fisher-Harris, Tanah Boyd, Luke Hanson tries; Boyd 4 cons, pen, Taine Tuaupiki pen, Jackson Ford con)
Newcastle Knights 12 (Fletcher Hunt, Greg Marzhew tries; Sandon Smith 2 cons)
HT: 18-6.
