The One New Zealand Warriors have started their Jersey Flegg Cup (under-21) season on the back foot falling to a 4-50 loss to Canberra in their round one encounter at Leichhardt Oval in Sydney on Saturday.
Playing the curtain raiser to the New South Wales Cup clash between the two clubs, the Warriors hung in early on but couldn’t stay with the pace of the game in their first meaningful outing together.
While Canberra created two tries for centre Regan Carr to hold a 10-0 lead after 21 minutes, a slick play directly from a scrum uncorked a lovely try to centre Caelys Putoko on the Warriors’ right edge.
At 4-10 after 23 minutes they were in the contest but errors were hurting them enabling Canberra to score again in the 33rd minute to go to halftime with a 16-4 advantage.
Match: Raiders v Warriors
Round 1 -
home Team
Raiders
1st Position
away Team
Warriors
14th Position
Venue: Leichhardt Oval, Sydney
The second half was another story.
The Raiders added two tries in the opening 10 minutes before going on a spree in the final quarter with four more tries to reach 50 points making it a tough afternoon for the Warriors.
They’ll be better for the run ahead of hosting the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at Navigation Homes Stadium in Pukekohe next Saturday.
