Hooker Wayde Egan says he and his One New Zealand Warriors teammates are hungry to make amends this week for a performance that “wasn’t our standard” against the Gold Coast Titans last Saturday.
After building a defensive foundation of grit and toughness over the last 18 months, Egan said the Warriors are intent on taking the right lessons from the heavy defeat on the Gold Coast in focusing on the matchup with the Brisbane Broncos in front of their fans at Go Media Stadium on Saturday.
“It wasn’t our standard, it wasn’t us… it wasn’t good,” said Egan.
“Obviously taking the lessons we learnt and having that hunger and drive to never let that sort of stuff happen again.
“Taking that hunger into this week and working hard and getting better and improving.”
Head coach Andrew Webster made a point of addressing the performance before the team returned home from Australia last Sunday to avoid lingering on the result and instead shift their attention to the upcoming match with last year’s beaten grand finalists.
“If we get too low this week, we’re not going to give ourselves a chance,” said Webster.
“We faced the music fast, we wanted to get straight into it the next morning before we flew home, wanted to watch it and… we’ve got to move on to what each individual and each team member has to do.
“If we’re looking always in the past, we’re not going to gain any confidence and get excited about this week, but I think that little burning feeling that everyone’s got right now is going to be driving people this week.
“I suspect there’s an inner fire, and we’ve spoken about that, to prove each other right, to prove to all our fans and everyone that that’s not us, and that’s what the boys chased today at training, and they were great.”
Egan and the squad are eager to repay the faith the fans have put in them by selling out yet another home game at Go Media Mt Smart Stadium, the eighth consecutive sellout of the 2024 season in Auckland (the 10th counting the home games against Canberra in Christchurch and Penrith in Brisbane).
“We have the best fans in the competition, I think, and to let them down hurts even more,” he said.
Match: Warriors v Broncos
Round 17 -
home Team
Warriors
10th Position
away Team
Broncos
11th Position
Venue: Go Media Stadium, Auckland
“To come back and get a sold-out Mt Smart is sort of what we need at the moment, we’ll definitely do our fans proud this week.”
As they were unable to mark the NRL’s Heritage Round last weekend, the One New Zealand Warriors will celebrate it this week by wearing their 2024 heritage strip which replicates the away kit used in the club’s debut season in 1995.
The game day will also be highlighted by the Warriors’ annual old boys’ reunion.
