A commitment to working through the tough moments together was key to Warriors picking up their first win in three weeks against the Gold Coast Titans on Friday night.
After leaking 80 points in back-to-back defeats to Wests Tigers and Manly, and missing a combined 78 tackles along the way, the Warriors muscled up to keep the Gold Coast scoreless for 59 minutes in a 26-10 victory in Auckland.
Kiwi international Tohu Harris, who clocked up 34 tackles, said a group approach to defence was the key difference in round four.
"We just had more of a focus on doing things together. In the last two weeks we have been a bit loose with our contact, done things on our own and not tried to solve problems together, and it showed on the scoreboard," Harris said.
"Tonight was more of a team effort, we did things together, moved well together defensively and I thought we did a good job for the most part.
Match Highlights: Warriors v Titans
"We certainly weren't perfect out there. We probably got lucky on a couple of those moments to keep them scoreless.
"The Titans clawed their way back into the game but we responded really well and were able to turn the momentum again, so that was the pleasing thing."
The Warriors made a horror start to the match at Mount Smart Stadium by kicking out on the full on the opening kick off, meaning they were under the pump defensively from the opening minute.
Through the first half the home side survived a number of sets camped on their own line, eventually frustrating the Gold Coast into forced offloads and poor decisions inside the attacking 20.
Coach Stephen Kearney said the improved attitude was clear to see right from the beginning.
"When your attitude is not right in this competition it just doesn’t work. You need attitude when you want to be physical, that's both when you carry the footy and when you have got to defend," Kearney said.
"That was a real positive for us. We didn't start off the way we would have liked with the kick out on the full and we put ourselves under a bit of pressure there for maybe the first 10 minutes."
With an eight-day turnaround now before facing South Sydney on the Sunshine Coast, Kearney was optimistic about the chances of having veteran hooker Issac Luke back in action, after he missed the Titans game with hamstring tightness.
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He also gave an update on prop Bunty Afoa and chief playmaker Blake Green, who both failed to finish the match.
"[Issac] trained pretty well today, he will run again on Sunday. He reached pretty high speeds today, so we are hopeful," Kearney said.
"[Bunty] just got a head knock, so we have got to go through the HIA protocol. We have got a fairly long turnaround until the next game, so hopefully he should be OK.
"We brought Greeny off at the end there, he just had a couple of bumps."