Win over Knights reveals Warriors blueprint

In addition to picking up two vital competition points last Saturday against the Newcastle Knights, Warriors veteran Adam Blair believes his side also discovered the blueprint for their run home. 

The 24-20 win at McDonald Jones Stadium lifted the Auckland-based side to 11th position on the Telstra Premiership ladder, with just two points now separating them from the top eight.

This week Blair said the message was to try and replicate that effort for the remainder of the regular season.

"I thought we turned up to Newcastle with the right attitude and intent to defend," Blair said.

"We worked together as a group and put a bit of a blueprint on ourselves for our defensive stuff and [in terms of] going after other teams.

"I think if we can keep doing those [things] it builds confidence when it comes to the back end of the game.

"Defensively I thought all over the park we were quite sharp.

"We frontloaded our energy defensively and got an opportunity to play good-ball footy, with boys catching the ball back on our 40 and getting back to the 50 on first tackle.

"[It was] giving us a lot of energy then to be able to attack."

The victory in Newcastle also saw an improved performance from the Warriors' forward pack, who dominated the middle of the park to help their side run for 440 metres more than the Knights.

While backline stars Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Ken Maumalo again shouldered much of the load when it came to carrying the ball, running for a combined 475 metres between them, four members of the starting forward pack also ran for 100 metres or more.

Prop Agnatius Paasi admitted consistency in the forwards has been lacking this season, but believed they made a statement against the Knights.  

"We have been up and down this year, but we have been in the competition [each week]… it's good to see us have a performance like that," Paasi told NRL.com.

"It all starts with us in the forwards and if we are doing well the backs can carry that momentum.

"Me and Leeson [Ah Mau] put up our hands to take control of the middle and get the ball in hand, and the backs jumped on board.

"Our middles showed that the combos are working, I thought we did a pretty good job, but there's another big task ahead of us this week."

A large part of that task when the Warriors head to Suncorp Stadium to face Brisbane on Saturday will be trying to limit the impact of the Broncos' starting props Matt Lodge and Payne Haas, who each average over 150 metres per game this season.