Warriors find attacking fire to cook Chooks

Andrew Webster's underdogs stunned the heavyweight Roosters in a seven-tries-to-three smackdown.

The pre-match concern centred around the Warriors’ ability to score points while being steered around by Tanah Boyd.

Rising to the occasion and defying the sceptics, the back-up halfback had an offensive blinder as the Warriors racked up their highest-ever Round 1 score in a stunning 42-18 defeat of ill-disciplined Sydney Roosters outfit.

Boyd was far from a one-man band in the blowout, however, with Chanel Harris-Tavita also superb, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck producing a Harlem Globetrotter-esque performance, and forward leaders James Fisher-Harris and Kurt Capewell inspiring their troops.

It certainly wasn’t one-way traffic, despite the Warriors scoring four unanswered tries to lead 28-6 with just over half an hour to go. A couple of late tries blew the scoreboard out, but the Roosters found plenty of holes and made the home fans sweat for a good portion of the second half with a spirited rally.

The Roosters made 47 tackle-breaks to 32 (including an obscene 13 from constant threat James Tedesco) and exposed some worrying Warriors shortcomings but couldn’t finish off enough of their chances. They also had just 44 percent of the ball, not aided by 13 errors and being on the wrong end of an 11-4 penalty count.

The night belonged to Boyd, his teammates and more than 20,000 fans at a sold-out Go Media Mount Smart Stadium — an emphatic season-opening statement from a club that has only won in Round 1 one-third of the time.