After falling on his then Melbourne teammate Michael Crocker in 2006 - denying Crocker a chance to play in the grand final that season after he suffered a fracture to the knee - Friend has now felled Manu Vatuvei and ended the Kiwi's hopes of playing in the Centenary Test.

Every one of the hooker's 85kg came down on Vatuvei's gigantic sides of ham that are his legs after 62 minutes, ensuring the Warriors winger was in a leg brace by full-time. Vatuvei was taken to hospital for X-rays after the game and the massive winger was then given the bad news - he has a spiral fracture of the fibula and will be out for four to six weeks.

"I just heard a crack. I didn't think he'd get back up," Friend said.

With the New Zealand side likely to be named either tomorrow or Wednesday, the timing of Vatuvei's injury was poor, even if the timing of his return to form in recent weeks has been the opposite after some shaky moments early in the season. Yesterday, Vatuvei, who has played 11 Tests over the past three years, was again mostly impressive, scoring a try and - heaven forbid - catching a bomb.

Cleary also lamented the sound of the referee's whistle, along with the crack of Vatuvei's leg, going against the side yesterday.

"That's what happens when you play away," Cleary said. "You've just got to make every post a winner. It just means we're going to have to work hard at the little things and they'll turn our way hopefully."

Still, the coach was heartened by the Warriors' refusal to capitulate, even after being down 30-12 five minutes after half-time. On the contrary, the men from the land of the long white cloud came home stronger under hot skies that had none.

"We showed a lot of fight to stay in the game, and to still be in the game right up until their last try - it just makes it too hard when you're consistently giving away leads and gifting points really," Cleary said. "We just came up with some bad plays and some bad decisions defensively early in the game, and if you're down in confidence as it is, and you look up at the scoreboard and you're trying to resist the temptation to chase points, which we didn't, but until we can consistently stop the opposition, it makes it hard to win."