When the Warriors went on a two-game away trip after grabbing home wins against Gold Coast and Parramatta, there was a splash of anticipation. They were off to face Canberra and Melbourne, two games that offered a great challenge for the Warriors and a measuring stick for everyone to gauge where they were at.

The second half collapse in Canberra wasn't ideal but put in context against the Panthers and Dragons collapses, it wasn't nearly as bad. Then the Warriors put a decent effort in against a quality Melbourne side before returning home to grab another home win over the Roosters. We are now at a similar juncture where the Warriors will play Parramatta in Sydney before playing the Titans up in Gold Coast, two away games that offer us the chance to really see how this team deals with undercover high pressure away games.

Parramatta and Gold Coast in Australia definitely isn't the same as Canberra and Melbourne in Australia. Not only are Parramatta and Gold Coast not quite as good as Canberra and Melbourne, away trips to Canberra and Melbourne are up there with an away trip to Auckland as the toughest in the NRL. This two week excursion to Sydney and Gold Coast could see the Warriors return with two wins, one win and a strong showing in a loss would't be so bad.

After dismantling Brisbane through the middle, the Warriors face a different challenge this week as they. Parramatta don't have a massive forward pack, but the make up for this with their mobility and this enables them to move well on defence, covering inside shoulders and scrambling. What the Eels forwards do in carting the footy out of their own end is perhaps more important as a guy like Nathan Brown causes problems thanks to his speed and agility around the ruck. Brown, Suaia Matagi and Tim Mannah are all smaller than their Warriors opponents and while Matagi for example will still run it straight, they'd be wise to move the Warriors forwards around; then Kenny Edwards will come on and run around like a headless chook.

This will offer a rather nice test of the Warriors defence through the middle, not only their effort and desire, also their wrestle and tackle technique. Can they use their size to slow down the Eels, or will their size slow them down?

I really like this match up and can see the Warriors spine enjoying time and space to work their magic. They must engage defenders through the middle first though and that's why it was such a tremendous sight to see Shaun Johnson pin his ears back and run straight behind the ruck last week. Kieran Foran didn't do that exact run last week, although he constantly ran via a dummy to his outside or a simple left foot step back inside. Johnson and Foran tested the desire of inside defenders and their speed showed some serious flaws in Brisbane's defence.

Parramatta will slide, they'll probably even note Simon Mannering's ball-playing wizardry and slide off him knowing that he is likely to pass. Whether it's Mannering establishing a run threat in the opening stanza, or Johnson and Foran attacking defenders in front of them or back towards the ruck, the Warriors have to show intent to target the middle defenders. 

This will then allow the Warriors to hit their edges, especially with Mitchell Moses defending out wide. His edge forwards will have to pay respect to the inside runners, drawing them away from Moses and forcing Moses to tackle Solomone Kata, or Bodene Thompson. 

Kata's return is unfortunate for Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad. Ken Maumalo is eating metres for brekky, Blake Ayshford is as solid as ever and David Fusitua has to be in the team, so Nicoll-Klokstad has to miss out. What this does give the Warriors is an injection of power and sets of six will involve Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Maumalo, Fusitua and Kata taking early carries before a forward gets a quick play-the-ball for the kick. 

I wouldn't expect Jacob Lillyman to play and I'd rather he didn't, so we can see Sam Lisone, Albert Vete and Bunty Afoa stay on the bench. Lisone and Vete have to back up their strong performance last week, consistency is their key to regular minutes and when you consider that on top of their grunt work, Lisone's ball-playing is improving and Vete is a noted off-loader, they offer a bit of funk off the bench. 

The joy of this current Warriors group is that there's many players who can genuinely influence a game in their team's favour, I'm struggling to go past Mannering and Tuivasa-Sheck as the keys to unlock the Warriors though. This has been the case most weeks and we saw Mannering's influence on attack last week, coinciding with Tuivasa-Sheck re-establishing himself as Mr 200m.

We haven't seen a complete performance from Tuivasa-Sheck just yet and by complete I mean Tuivasa-Sheck running for 200m, ball-playing on the edges, kicking when needed and making you go 'ooooosh' with every ankle-breaker he does. Look for Tuivasa-Sheck to be his usual unstoppable self in running the footy and then note how he is used as a ball-player and then how he executes as a ball-player. 

Everything went through Foran or Johnson last week, or back through the middle. If the Warriors are able to lay the foundation of keeping middle defenders honest, expect Tuivasa-Sheck to shine out on the edges where defenders have to try tackle him, then worry about who he may pass to.

Every time Roger Tuivasa-Sheck whacks someone, you hit an ad? Deal? Or just treat the ads like donation buttons, hit an ad, donate to the Niche Cache and don't pay nothing.