Warriors 14 Raiders 6
THERE are days when it is difficult to imagine any glamour in the lifestyle of the professional footballer.
It rained throughout this game, the sort of persistent, drenching drizzle that once pushed a visitor to these shores to write a poem all about precipitation, which included this line: "We had a most refreshing shower, and then the most curious thing of all - a gentle rain began to fall."
There were fewer than 8000 sodden spectators, 20 penalties, easily as many scrums, only three tries, and the sort of novice errors that drove the losing coach, Neil Henry, to observe of his team's attitude to possession: "We invented quite a few ways to give them the ball back."
Imagine being Raiders halfback Todd Carney, playing representative football on Friday night, crossing the Tasman on Saturday, barely getting a chance to impress yourself on the game because your forwards keep dropping the football, then leaving the field to be told by some goon hanging over the players' tunnel: "Oi, Carney, you played well today mate, that'll gee you up."
But then you could be 18-year-old Warriors prop Russell Packer, who was given 23 minutes on his first-grade debut and would have played on a public park in Invercargill in a snowstorm if he'd been asked.
Thought by many to be the most exciting front-row talent to emerge from New Zealand, Packer said: "It's probably come a lot faster than I had imagined … but I felt I was ready and the coaching staff felt I was ready, and now I have had a taste I want to keep working hard to put myself in the frame should a chance come again."
A Sun-Herald poll yesterday listed Mt Smart Stadium as the competition's fourth-toughest venue. But if the poll had factored in weather like this, it would have finished on top. Warriors stand-in captain Micheal Luck said his side had come to enjoy such conditions, and their completion rate of 81 per cent reflected their comfort in the wet.
Henry described the Raiders' completion rate of 54 per cent as "not up to NRL standards … not acceptable". "The effort and attitude defensively was there," he said. "[But] we turned up with half a game today".
Probably the wrong half: possession was king and the Warriors ensured they had plenty of it in the first half, which finished with the hosts 8-0 up from two Michael Witt penalty goals and a try from Brent Tate. That four-pointer was fashioned by a rare moment of flair when Witt neatly chipped over his opposite five-eighth, Michael Dobson, regathered and found halfback Grant Rovelli in support.
Rovelli was then denied a try after he dummied to Carney and forced his way over. Video referee Steve Clark caught dummy runner Logan Swann almost absent-mindedly collecting fullback Bronx Goodwin, who fell to the turf flapping his arms like a traffic policeman.
Canberra's best opportunity of the first half came with only six seconds remaining, when Carney kicked high for Colin Best.
They claimed their only points in the 51st minute. A Carney kick ricocheted fortuitously for Lincoln Withers, who beat two defenders and twisted over. Then Carney dropped the restart, told himself to "f--- off" and the game was effectively gone six minutes later when Ryan Shortland touched down Nathan Fien's grubber kick.
A Witt penalty goal on 62 minutes was the final act of note; he tried for another 10 minutes later but propelled it barely 10 metres, and almost sideways.
For a Warriors team missing eight first-graders, and who lost winger Aidan Kirk three days before the game with a hamstring injury, a win that gave them a 50 per cent win-loss record was satisfying. Especially, according to coach Ivan Cleary, since his team "haven't consistently played all that well".
Club doctor John Mayhew said Jerome Ropati, Ruben Wiki and Sonny Fai would all be fit for the Warriors' next game after their bye, away to Penrith.
Captain Steve Price is so keen to be involved he picked up used strapping tape from the dressing-room floor after the game.
And breaking the normal convention of presenting the Kiwis coach with injury headaches before a Test, the Warriors' two selections for Friday's Centenary match emerged fit, while centre Brent Tate said he had heard nothing except punditry to suggest he could expect a late call-up to the Australian team.
It appeared as if Witt, who left the game with eight minutes to go, was a casualty. But, in keeping with the character of this game, the only injury was to his ego: hauled off after that atrocious goal kick by his coach, who observed: "I was laughing at him."
