Warriors vs Knights - Three things we learned

Charlie Gubb proved against the Newcastle Knights that he has found his niche. photo / Nick Reed

Michael Burgess looks at three key lessons from the Warriors' big win over the Knights.

Waiting for the full 80

We are still yet to see a complete, 80 minute performance from this Warriors team. The display versus the Knights was a patchy one, which wouldn't have been good enough against a club closer to the top of the ladder. Captain Ryan Hoffman admitted the team seemed to clock off after opening the scoring through Solomone Kata in the third minute - "It was a case of patting each other on the back and thinking about how good we were going...we needed a reality check" - before they found some fire in the latter stages of the first half.

Gubb goes great

At the moment, Charlie Gubb has found his niche. Though he is surrounded by much bigger names in the forwards, Gubb is bringing a lot of impact in his role off the bench. His physicality and intensity lifted the team noticeably early in the second half, which helped to swing the momentum in that period. He also provided the assist for the most important try of the day, running to the line before finding Ben Matulino in the 38th minute of the first half.

Kata's got soul

In just his second season of first grade, centre Solomone Kata continues to impress. There are still mistakes in his game and his defence isn't the finished product, but he brings a great intensity of purpose to his work. Kata averaged more than 10 metres with each run yesterday and gave the Knight's right edge defence constant headaches. Kata also came up with a match turning play late in the first half, with an improbable escape from his own in-goal. "He's getting better and better for us," said Manu Vatuvei of his fellow Tongan, "[He's] learning fast".