French fans at Auckland's Viaduct speak about their opening match win and hopes for making the final.
Video / Bonnie Jansen
By Christopher Reive in Sydney
Warriors coach Andrew Webster didn’t sugarcoat his assessment of the side’s first NRL finals appearance since 2018, a game that left the side with a feeling of ‘what if?’
Webster’s side was mauled 32-6 by the Penrith Panthers on a hotSaturday afternoon in western Sydney, with the hosts taking advantage of Warriors’ errors to take a big lead in the first half before closing out the game in fine fashion.
The Warriors will now host either the Newcastle Knights or Canberra Raiders in an elimination match next weekend in Auckland with that match at either Go Media Stadium Mt Smart or Eden Park.
At no point against the Panthers did the Warriors really look threatening – their lone try coming through Wayde Egan on some second-phase play after a Mitch Barnett offload. They offered little with ball in hand and errors allowed Penrith to enjoy significantly more time with ball in hand.
“We got a real good finals lesson on you’ve got to build pressure,” Webster said.
Warriors fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad dejected after loss to Penrith Panthers. Photo / Photosport
“When you build pressure, you look a different football team. You’ve got way more energy, way more comfortable, you’re believing in what you’re doing, you stay in the system and you don’t start making things up.
“When you build pressure you give yourself an opportunity to win. We didn’t do that.”
While there were some good moments on defence for the Warriors, it was a performance that left Webster wondering how it might have turned out if his side had done what they wanted to.
“We didn’t come here and expect them to beat themselves, have 100 errors and make mistakes. But we didn’t put them under any pressure.
“We didn’t give ourselves a 50/50 arm wrestle; we were offside on our first kick chase, dropped balls in the backfield, started offloading in our own end. We started doing things which made the pressure that they created stronger, and we didn’t give ourselves a chance...everyone clearly knows we didn’t give ourselves an opportunity.”
The side were without the services of star halfback Shaun Johnson, who is considered a good chance of returning next weekend, and while his presence might have helped their attack, Webster said he wouldn’t have impacted the areas of the game that let his side down in Penrith.
Hooker Wayde Egan, who made more than 50 tackles in a workhorse-like effort, acknowledged Johnson’s absence did have an effect on the side.
“He’s probably been the best player in the NRL over this year so not having him there obviously affects us a little bit, but that’s no excuse for what we dished up tonight,” Egan said.
“We’ve got some very capable players who stepped in there and we can’t rely on one guy.
“It’s obviously nice to have Shaun and he’s a quality player, but that’s no excuse for what we dished up tonight.”
The side will now review the performance before turning their attention to their first home finals match since 2008 next weekend, and while the fans will show up in their numbers, Webster was mindful of making sure his side don’t let the moment get the better of them.
“The energy they’re going to create and the support we’re going to have this week is going to be unbelievable, and we’ve got to make sure we get up for this game, but we’ve got to make sure we put our energy into the right things,” he said.
“We were up for today...but mentally we just weren’t thinking at the right times.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
