When starting these diary entries about our dear Aotearoa Warriors, it's probably important that I serve up some context after each game. I often do this in defence of the Warriors as many folks love to over-react and after wins, especially wins against a team who is without their star halfback, some calibration is required. 

Overall, I am loving what I'm seeing from the Warriors and they defeated Gold Coast Titans despite coughing up a fair amount of ball. The absence of Ash Taylor however took away the Titans' chief play-maker and best attacking threat, throwing the responsibility to Kane Elgey and Bryce Cartwright who had moments of class, but mostly moments of poor execution. 2-0 is great and the Warriors have look rather ruthless in those wins; neither the Rabbitohs nor Titans are among the NRL's best though.

This was a strange game in the sense that the Warriors were dominant through the middle and via strong carries or offloads, were able to play fast around the ruck area. Combine that with the cross-field running in the attacking zone and the Titans were asked to do a lot of work defensively, although the Titans often found themselves in positions to score through Warriors errors. The Titans did score, a few times in fact but didn't execute properly and things fell in favour of the Warriors.

In that regard, it was as though the Warriors were arrogant in their play - which I love. They knew that if they push the footy around, they have too much talent and precision for the Titans and while they may make errors, they will also score points. The Warriors look immensely confident in their attack and defence, they knew that the Titans couldn't stop them and that they could stop the Titans. 

Such confidence will be especially funky at the Mt Smart graveyard. The Warriors will obviously take this confidence to Australia on away trips, at Mt Smart though they will ooze a belief that no team can hang with them for 80 minutes; no team has the attacking prowess, no team has the fitness to defend their physicality and pizzaz for 80 minutes and no team will be able to score 20 points at Mt Smart.

As always, I've got some observations below...

Tohu Harris was exceptional on the right edge and his combination with Shaun Johnson is low key mouth-watering. Johnson's speed (/general threat) get Harris the footy outside of Elgey and Harris can do as he pleases:

David Fusitu'a jams up on Elgey, note how Johnson and Peta Hiku are nicely positioned to cover Fusitu'a if he misses Elgey (he doesn't):

This is from Elgey's No Try and while I love late shots at Mt Smart, the issue here is that Ligi Sao and James Gavet both hit Cartwright late, thus leaving a hole for Elgey. Only one can get him late so the other is still engaged:

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck dummy half run. He only had 1 this week for 10m (2 last week) and when Tuivasa-Sheck is scootin' with markers in a horrible position like below, shit the bed:

More Tohu brilliance as he gets a pass away under pressure:

Tuivasa-Sheck made a huge break down the middle and it starts with lethal footwork against a forward. I love this, this is delightful:

Again we see a Warriors half push up with a long backline. Last week Johnson got up and here's Blake Green doing his best to limit a shift all the way to the edge:

Another Tuivasa-Sheck try saver:

Tohu finds his front, look at all the Titans players in this shot and think about the fact that Tohu will play the ball in a second:

Issac Luke was exceptional (they were all very good) and had 8 dummy half runs for 89m. What Luke does best though is pass at the end of his runs and I've got a few snaps of him doing so, but not all. I reckon Luke passes/offloads 60 percent of the time when he runs and you only need to see below to suss out why that's so dangerous for a defence:

Some Tohu footwork to get the outside and pass to Hiku, creating a 3 vs 2:

Footwork, passing, a cheeky grubber and it takes three blokes to pull Tohu down:

Tuivasa-Sheck scored from a Green inside pass and it started with Johnson stepping of his right, on the last tackle back towards Green and Tuivasa-Sheck. This looked off the cuff as Johnson was probably going to kick, although the way Tuivasa-Sheck is lined up behind Green and their execution of the inside pass has me wondering if this was somewhat planned:

Tuivasa-Sheck did not pass the footy here, he did look though and this happened enough during the game to be a trend. The back three pass to each other in kick-returns to get them away from the defensive pressure - which allows Ken Maumalo and Fusitu'a to bypass being gang-tackled:

Here's Fustiu'a passing to Maumalo on the next play, which results in Maumalo running out towards the half/edge forward and not a couple of middle forwards:

the Johnson x Tohu combo going to the line again, Elgey either slides to Tohu and lets Johnson through or plugs in on Johnson and Johnson simply passes to Tohu:

Tuivasa-Sheck passing to Maumalo on a kick-return, was a shit pass but the idea is clear:

Sam Lisone goes to the line with Bunty Afoa in support and does a great job of fake ball-playing as he takes the tackle:

I love how the Warriors have sharpened their wrestle and this was evident on Konrad Hurrell, who generates so much momentum for the Titans. Here they work hard to turn Koni around:

On another Titans player, Tohu (fantastic wreslter from the Storm's wrestling academy) twists him on to his back with Lisone's help:

Another Luke run ending in a pass, see the Titans player up near the scoreboard top left? That's where Luke's run started:

Solomone Kata try saver:

This time Lisone does pass and maybe because he didn't pass last time, Elgey pushes up to make the tackle and Lisone shuffles it along to Johnson:

Maumalo jams up on Koni, Kata and Green in good positions to cover Maumalo and Leivaha Pulu (great job filling in at left edge for Isaiah Papalii) works hard to cover the inside:

Afoa and Adam Blair twist Koni on to his back, great wrestle again:

Another Luke run ends in a pass. First look at how far Luke runs and then look at all those Titans defenders in a small space in the second shot:

Elgey steps off his right to attack a Warriors short side and Tohu is caught out as he was chillin' preparing for the next play:

But Tohu recovers perfectly:

Ryan James broke out of a Hiku tackle and then met Tuivasa-Sheck front on, Tuivasa-Sheck sat him on his bum:

Ligi Sao goes low, Tohu up top and Tohu gets this lad on his back:

James got sat down by Tuivasa-Sheck and then Johnson wraps him up later on:

Super simple play for a Maumalo try here as Green plays out the back to Tuivasa-Sheck with Pulu as a decoy, Tuivasa-Sheck is only slightly on the outside of Cartwright but it doesn't really matter because Tuivasa-Sheck's too fast and it becomes a 3 vs 2:

Fusitu'a showed why he's one of the best wingers in the game in catching the bomb for his try, but if you give Johnson this much time to kick, he'll land it on a dime (he have ran further also):

Tuivasa-Sheck made another try saver on Michael Gordon and look where Tuivasa-Sheck starts (under the posts) and he makes the tackle on Gordon in the corner between Kata and Maumalo

The goal-line D was awesome in the last few minutes, including crucial tackles like this from Green and Kata:

Some stats stuff to finish with...

Adam Blair played the entire first half and 61 minutes total to cover Papalii's injury and finished with 5 offloads including 2 in the same set, the first of which started a break in the second half; Blair to Luke to Johnson to Green to Lisone.

Tuivasa-Sheck, Hiku and Pulu had 4 offloads each.

Gavet, Luke, Lisone and Afoa averaged over 10m/carry.

Tuivasa-Sheck: 22 runs, 230m, 1 try, 1 try assist, 2 line breaks, 1 line break assist, 8 tackle busts, 4 offloads.

Tohu Harris: 14 runs, 129m, 2 line break assists, 1 kick, 4 tackle busts.

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Peace and love 27