TWL RD 7: KINGZ CONTAINER CREW WARRIORS PLAYER RATINGS
A key component of the Warriors’ monumental turnaround under Andrew Webster has been the comparatively small margin between their best and worst – arguably bettered only by Penrith in 2023. But the coaching marvel’s charges found a new performance floor in Wollongong to crash to a 30-12 loss to unfancied St George Illawarra, putting a slight taint on a week where the James Fisher-Harris signing news saw pundits on both sides of the ditch clamouring to declare us the NRL new megapower.
A leisurely blowout seemed on the cards early, the Warriors rolling down the field, finding an early try through Shaun Johnson and earning a welter of subsequent cracks at the Dragons’ line.
But when the expected points failed to flow, the visitors gave away a succession of cheap penalties – which they appeared unwilling to atone for with any form of goal-line resolve. Three visits to the Warriors’ end garnered three marshmallow-soft Saints tries in the space of 11 minutes in arguably the worst all-round period of the Webster era. A booming two-point field from Zac Lomax on halftime sent the Warriors to the WIN Stadium sheds with hangdog expressions and a 16-6 deficit staring back at them.
A freak Lomax try in the first minute after the break set the tone for an equally frustrating second 40 minutes. The Warriors’ ample chances to claw back into the contest were thwarted by impatience, poor execution and option-taking, and outstanding Dragons defence.
A match-sealing Tyrell Sloan length-of-the-field effort from a Johnson error summed up the night for the Warriors, who finally broke a scoring drought of almost an hour when the game was already out of reach.
The Saints were superb in every department, their best display since long before hiring Anthony Griffin was merely a bad idea swirling around the St George Illawarra boardroom table. But that should have only ensured a close, hard-fought contest decided by a couple of big moments. The Warriors simply weren’t up to it on the night, which was characterised by ill-discipline, impulsiveness and exasperation.
Webster’s bench selections will and should come under scrutiny, with two of his interchanges only taking the field in the last six minutes and another merely a straight swap on an edge for the last 20 minutes. But the die was cast for the Warriors midway through the first half, well before his overworked middles got too tired to stem the Red V flow that washed over the team.
And knowing what we do about this team, their coach and the club over the past 18 months, there’s every reason to expect a robust bounce-back on Anzac Day.
Righto, let’s get down to the Kingz Container Crew player ratings, which are making me feel like 2022 all over again – despite a trio of toilers standing out from the crowd.
Happy birthday Tom my man, gutted the boys bottled it right in front of you but hope TWL hopes it’s been a good trip down the South Coast with the fam!
Match Highlights
Another dazzling display by Zac Lomax led the Dragons to a resounding 30-12 victory over the Warriors. pic.twitter.com/oMLrUusUFI
— NRL (@NRL) April 19, 2024
1 CHARNZE NICOLL-KLOKSTAD: Could have been forgiven for pulling a Puig Aubert and having a durrie instead of trying, given the dirge that was been served up by the majority of the teammates in front of him. But that’s not CNK’s style and he was one of the team’s few positives, cranking through a game-high 248 metres on 26 carries, with six tackle-breaks and a sound game at the back. 7.5
2 DALLIN WATENE-ZELEZNIAK: An uncharacteristically low output of 12 runs for 103 metres, while a dreadful arm-grab on a runaway Sloan kinda negated an absolutely cracking finish for the Warriors’ only try of the second half. 5.5
3 ROCCO BERRY: Ugly one-one-one miss to allow opposite Suli to breeze over for the first try in Berry’s worst moment of the season, not long after giving away a penalty. Shored things up for the most part to finish with an absurd 32 tackles – including several crucial second-half stops near his own line – and had the assist for DWZ’s try, but came up with two errors and another couple of late penalties. Eight runs for 67 metres, roughly half of which came from a line-break deep in Warriors territory in the latter stages. 4.5
4 ROGER TUIVASA-SHECK: Got through plenty of ball-carrying work with 142 metres from 16 runs, with a team-high seven tackle-breaks. But he would produce that sort of output – probably more so – in the other positions he can play. It was probably exacerbated by playing opposite a dominant Lomax tonight, but the increasingly glaring aspect of RTS’s performances is he’s not providing anything particularly impressive as a centre, while the best parts of his games have nothing to do with him being a centre (and his standout moments in 2024 have been at fullback and wing). Or maybe I’m just shitty about the braindead penalty he gave away from the short dropout. 5
5 MARCELO MONTOYA: Started strong before enduring a horror minute in which he spilled the pill on a kick-return and was bumped off by Ravalawa for the Saints’ second. Left flat-footed in the first minute of the second half as Lomax climbed over him to take a bomb and score. Went into his shell thereafter, finishing with 120 running metres after racking up 97 in the first half. Great personality and competitor, excellent when he’s on…but awful when he’s not. And there are multiple alternatives. 4
6 TE MAIRE MARTIN: Looked energised and busy early on, but gave away a first-half penalty and barely featured for the last hour. Couldn’t fire the left-side attack. Eight runs for 63 metres and 15 tackles. 5
7 SHAUN JOHNSON: Seemed set for another golden night when he danced through for the first try and was threatening to unpick the Dragons with every touch in the opening 15 minutes. Not much went to plan afterwards, his options shut down brilliantly by a suffocating Dragons defence. Put one dead at a crucial stage in an otherwise sound kicking display and his cold drop led to Sloan’s back-breaking runaway. Never stopped trying – 15 runs for 81 metres and 29 tackles, including some big stops – but not a happy night by his standards. 6
8 ADDIN FONUA-BLAKE: Could have been forgiven for feeling like the first cute sheep in that The Simpsons scene (clip below) after everyone had been fawning over the JFH signing for the past 48 hours and were suddenly bidding AFB a fond farewell. But the big bloke reminded us we will definitely miss him via a mammoth 70-minute contribution with bench relief scarce, churning out 233 metres (second only to Charnze and including a game-high 97m post-contact) from 24 runs, along with 23 tackles with no misses. An early handling error came from overrunning a Tohu pass that probably shouldn’t have been thrown. 7.5
9 WAYDE EGAN: Beautiful piece of deception to get credited with the try assist for SJ’s four-pointer. But throwing an intercept in front of the Dragons’ sticks was the culmination of a few subsequent poor options during the Warriors’ early dominance and triggered the first-half turnaround. Shrugged off in fairly embarrassing fashion by Hunt as the halfback nugget scored. Some real desperation tackles in the second half among 47 for the match, but a late bullet that Tom Ale had no chance of catching capped an uncustomarily unhappy offensive night for the gun No.9 on the night. 5.5
10 MITCH BARNETT: Hard to fault the Blues Origin smoky when he got through 14 runs for 118 metres and 30 tackles in 56 minutes, while being one of just five Warriors players who didn’t come up with an error or give away a penalty. Reputation intact. 6.5
11 JACKSON FORD: Ahhh, what the hell happened here? One of the Warriors’ most eager ball-runners – and one of their more potent attacking weapons until getting another case of the butterfingers last week – made zero runs in the first half and only carted it up once before being hooked with 20 minutes left. Made 31 tackles, but gave away a penalty, a six-again and was put on report for a crusher. If there wasn’t a pre-existing injury in the mix, that was a weird one. 3
12 KURT CAPEWELL: Ordinary dropped ball on attack and two first-half ruck infringements, one of which led to Hunt’s try. Didn’t put himself under the microscope in the second half and racked up 42 tackles, but just four runs for 17 metres. He’s a one-percenters guy, but at present is offering much less to the naked eye than the similarly-experienced, similarly-regarded, similarly-priced – and quite maligned – Ryan Hoffman. 4
13 TOHU HARRIS: A typical captain’s knock that deserved way more than the scoreline he was on the end of and the uncomfortable post-match interviews and press conference he was subjected to. Played the full 80 minutes, trucked the ball up 22 times for 168 metres and made a team-high 48 tackles, along with 15 passes in a busy-as-ever ball-playing contribution…though not all of it was as astute as usual. An inspiration nevertheless. 7.5
15 TOM ALE: Played a season-high 31 minutes and got stuck in with eight impressive runs for 91 metres (42 post-contact) and 17 tackles. A cheap first-half penalty and a missed tackle on Raymond Faitala-Mariner that would have caused a try if not for a borderline forward-pass call chipped away at his good work. 5.5
16 JACOB LABAN: Pitched in for Ford for the last 20 minutes but struggled to work his way into the game in admittedly difficult circumstances. Four runs for 25 metres, eight tackles and an error. 4
17 ADAM POMPEY: Biffed on in the forwards for the last six minutes, making a run and a few tackles. 4
23 PAUL ROACHE: The late call-up for his second NRL game resulted in getting the last four minutes at dummy-half and he certainly looked to bring some spark. Credited error was a last-tackle offload intercepted by a Dragon. 4
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