Wests Tigers listless against Warriors even after Maguire spray

Even an almighty halftime spray from the Tigers coach could not stop his side slumping to a sluggish defeat to the ­Warriors.

Warriors’ Peta Hiku scores his second try of the match against Wests Tigers at the SCG. Picture: Brett Costello

Hell hath no fury like a disappointed Michael Maguire and even an almighty halftime spray from the Tigers coach could not stop his side slumping to a sluggish 26-20 defeat to the ­Warriors.

The Tigers got out to an 8-0 lead with two early tries but went off the boil badly as the Warriors outhustled, outenthused and outplayed them at the SCG. It’s a hammer blow for the Tigers’s hopes of ending the longest finals drought in the NRL. This loss keeps them on the outside of the top eight as the race for the playoffs heats up.

“I keep talking about an 80-minute game, we played about 10 minutes there,” Maguire said. “We’ve all got to own it, every single one of us.

“That was not a Wests Tigers performance anymore. It’s not acceptable in and around club and the boys understand what’s acceptable and what we’re doing moving forward. This is the expectation. We need to be winning games, simple as that.”

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It was easy to see why Maguire lashed out at a chair in anger during his speech at halftime.

When Moses Mbye opened the scoring after a wonderful offload from Luciano Leilua and David Nofoaluma added the Tigers’s second soon thereafter it seemed a repeat of the 48-0 belting of Brisbane two weeks ago was in the offing.

But what followed was uninspired attack, questionable defence and a lack of attention to detail. Basic errors were their undoing and they showed little of the ferocity or fight of last week’s valiant effort against Parramatta.

Maguire indicated a poor attitude was behind his team’s lacklustre display.

“If you’re going to play NRL you need to do it all the time,” he said. “I spoke about it (attitude) at halftime, but I could see it in the first half. We scored two tries and all of a sudden they’re walking down the park.”

The Warriors pulled back to 8-8 via a soft try to Karl Lawton and a Kodi Nikorima penalty and even though the Tigers went to the break up 14-8 after a try to interchange forward Sam McIntyre, Maguire gave them both barrels in the sheds. It wasn’t enough, with the Warriors running in three tries in the second stanza to grab a lead they never surrendered.

Every victory the Warriors get this season is a gift – they have been away from home for months and lose players every week.

But it’s a credit to the players and interim coach Todd Payten that they have never let their effort waver, and their reward was stirring wins like this one.

“I’m really happy, really proud,” Payten said. “That pride in performance has been building for a while. I think the players around the group are starting to hold each other accountable. We’ve had four guys go so everyone here has had to dig in and they’ve done that.”

It would have been easy to pack things in at 8-0 down, but the Kiwis refused to yield and stormed over the top of the Tigers. Centre Peta Hiku grabbed a double and lock forward Tohu Harris was immense, churning through 153 metres from 16 runs and scoring a rare try.

Fiery prop Jack Hetherington is only at the Warriors on a loan deal from Penrith but the way he’s going they’ll want to take him back to New Zealand with them.

After his eye-catching stoush with Roosters hardman Jared Waerea-Hargreaves last week, Hetherington had another strong showing, running for 146 metres from 13 runs.

The Daily Telegraph