Tanah Terrific guides Warriors to perfect start

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Warriors v Canberra Raiders

A terrific performance by halfback Tanah Boyd has guided the Warriors to a 40-6 smashing of the Canberra Raiders before a huge home crowd at Go Media Stadium.

What made the 34-point victory so impressive was they were without Kurt Capewell who was injured in the warmup and Chanel Harris-Tavita who was knocked out early in the first half.

Following an early penalty against Jacob Laban, the Raiders capitalised on some terrific field position. It was great ball playing from Joe Tapine and Ethan Sanders to find Kaeo Weekes into a yawning gap to score the opening try of the contest. 

Despite losing Capewell in the warmup and Harris-Tavita to a cat-1 incident (collected the elbow of Noah Martin). The hosts capitalised on some poor discipline from the Raiders to hit back. A nice shift to the right edge saw Dallin Watene-Zelezniak slide underneath the defenders sliding across to score. In a quiet first half, the Warriors levelled the scores following a late tackle by Hudson Young on replacement Taine Tuaupiki to send us level at half-time.

But that was as close as the Raiders got to the lead. A Tom Starling error was quickly scooped up by Ali Leiataua to race away to score and give the Warriors a lead that would not be chased down.  A clever grubber kick from Boyd sat up inch perfectly for the ranging backrower Leka Halasima, who won the race and grounded the ball in the in-goal.

The final twenty minutes was one way traffic for the Warriors with five tries in the final quarter hour of the contest to blow the Raiders completely off the park. Just on the hour mark, the Warriors defensive efforts saw reward when their attack forced an error from the Raiders. It was terrific ball playing from Erin Clark to draw in the defenders and there was no more deserving player than Jackson Ford to charge over to score.

The Warriors sealed the game inside the final 15 minutes when Halasima recieved some early ball to fend away from four defenders on his way to the line. Andrew Webster has made the youngster earn his way into the side but he is proving too hard to leave out of the 17. Boyd put an exclamation mark on a terrific individual performance with a solo effort in the dying moments.

Following a 40/20, the grubber kick went off several legs which saw Erin Clark flick it like prime Lionel Messi before landing in the arms of Boyd to slam the ball down. Watene-Zelezniak capped his double in style late. A clever cross-field kick by Boyd continued to target Savelio Tamale. DWZ got his leap perfect and slams the footy down to cap off a terrific performance.