Warriors NRLW coach Brad Donald pinpointed a lack of familiarity and execution as the source for his side's struggles following their 22-12 loss to the Roosters.
Donald insisted "you certainly can't knock the effort" but the Warriors were left relying on the Dragons to beat the Broncos in Saturday's other round-two match to keep their grand final hopes alive.
With only five New Zealand-based players from the 2019 team backing up for this year's tournament alongside a multitude of debutants, Donald admitted it's been tough for the squad to click.
"I'm actually really gutted for the players, for everyone that's been involved because it's been a whirlwind four weeks to pull this all together," Donald said.
"Their performance … they didn’t do themselves justice in how much effort's gone in... Our execution was terrible, but it's really hard pulling together a squad of 22 that haven't played together before.
"We looked great at training, but the Roosters just put us under the pump today. All credit to them and their defence."
Match Highlights: Warriors v Roosters
Donald knows every team is in the same situation coming off a limited preparation, but says his squad's immaturity is evident as they failed to build upon a promising first-up loss to Brisbane.
"Another couple of weeks [of training] and definitely a trial match just to iron out a few things certainly would have given us a better look," he said.
"But having said that, all credit to them. They're a remarkable bunch of ladies. We've got to remember here that all the girls who are playing from Queensland are staring down the barrel of two weeks' quarantine when they go home.
"The girls from New Zealand have got two weeks already that they've done on the way across and they've got to do two weeks on the way back.
"We were really fortunate … the Roosters have been great, there's two players that they helped us acquire in Kirra Dibb and Sam Economos so that we did have a little bit more experience.
"But even Sam is in her NRLW debut season. So I think just the lack of consistency in some of those players came out today. When you've played this level of footy before you’re a lot more confident but you're also a lot more consistent."
Donald, who is also the Jillaroos coach, promised the Warriors would "show up next week" against the Dragons.
