Post Match Wests Tigers v NZ Warriors - [Round 4, 2026]

MrFrankWhite · Mar 28, 2026

So Egan decides to retreat 15m with his back to the play, Ford goes to pick up the ball and has Laban, TSS, Barney then Tannah, with CNK & DWZ on the outside.

He runs a total of 10m and now has TSS and Laban 8m away and no one else in sight. Laban peels right, TSS slows down and Boyd starts directing plays, not even looking at the ruck....

Its 5:26 left in the 1st half

MrFrankWhite · Mar 28, 2026

That whole right edge just fucking clocked off waiting for half time. Broncos, Panthers Storm all score there and we dont. Not because there's no cohesion, but because players were being lazy, taking shortcuts

Beastmode · Mar 28, 2026

MrFrankWhite said:
So Egan decides to retreat 15m with his back to the play, Ford goes to pick up the ball and has Laban, TSS, Barney then Tannah, with CNK & DWZ on the outside.

He runs a total of 10m and now has TSS and Laban 8m away and no one else in sight. Laban peels right, TSS slows down and Boyd starts directing plays, not even looking at the ruck....

Where was Metcalf ?

I’m j/k all you LM fanboys

Stalefish540 · Mar 28, 2026

Beastmode said:
And whoever said Metcalf is a good defender… no. Just no. He was targeted all night and breached multiple times. Give me CHT any day — he’s a rock.

I don't think Metcalf is in the turnstile category at all. I have him and Boyd in same category, they can both defend under the right conditions.

Neither are in the elite defensive half category that CHT is that helps others defend better around him and can solve problems on his own. But theres not many halfs like him in the league, so it's not a major knock on either of them.

For me if you put a fit Capewell next to Metcalf he'll likely work fine under that system with Pompey and RTS outside.

Same goes for Boyd. He looks servicable with Laban there this season as Laban can release and cover ground which is what Marata has lost and was causing major issues last year. Once Marata goes there it starts to have issues for me, the Marzhew try last week and a fair few times last night I saw it as well.

Whether the above is right or wrong, that's my completely uneducated guess from the eye test.

MrFrankWhite · Mar 28, 2026

Stalefish540 said:
I don't think Metcalf is in the turnstile category at all. I have him and Boyd in same category, they can both defend under the right conditions.

Neither are in the elite defensive half category that CHT is that helps others defend better around him and can solve problems on his own. But theres not many halfs like him in the league, so it's not a major knock on either of them.

For me if you put a fit Capewell next to Metcalf he'll likely work fine under that system with Pompey and RTS outside.

Same goes for Boyd. He looks servicable with Laban there this season as Laban can release and cover ground which is what Marata has lost and was causing major issues last year. Once Marata goes there it starts to have issues for me, the Marzhew try last week and a fair few times last night I saw it as well.

Whether the above is right or wrong, that's my completely uneducated guess from the eye test.

Its Pompey that fucked that up, doesn't push out and then overcommits forcing Mets to try and tackle side on which let Doueihi use his reach with the fend

Wrighty · Mar 28, 2026

Matiunz said:
I’d add to that the no dummy half when ford got a quick ptb was unforgivable, score on any one of those occasions and it’s possibly a different result. Think a loss was probably needed to keep us grounded but that was a bad loss.
On the Pompey brain explosion I don’t think it was as cynical as others made out- for mine even though it looked clearly caught on the full the way the Tigers player ran it back wasn’t trying to get to the 20 quick, it looked like he was trying to get out of goal. Pompey second guessed and took the safe option- dumb ? Yes but I think the Tigers player played for that exact result

And Matuinz my memory is, someone to tell me if I am wrong, the tigers scored off the Ford PTB turn over and it was a critical try that killed our spirit. So yes there were two defining moments in the game I agree.

I am interested in your take on events about how cynical Pampey's professional foul was or wasn't. My initial reaction was that I was deeply dissapointed in Adam. He has never done anything remotely cynical before and our entire Warriors team since I began watching in 2018 we have never done a professional foul before. This was new territory for us.
I am proud of the warriors play but this year we have been a bit weird as Erin Clarke got us marched ten metres in game one for back chat if I recall. we have never ever back chatted before and our guys wouldn't dream of it no matter how the bad the call is. So I hope a pattern is not setting in over "over competitiveness" and wanting to win so much that we are starting to bend the rules on purpose and act outside of the spirit of the game which I love and they love as players.

MrFrankWhite · Mar 28, 2026

Wrighty said:
the tigers scored off the Ford PTB turn over and it was a critical try that killed our spirit.

Correct, they scored after the Ford turnover, RTS couldnt take the kick. RTS then butchered the next kick as well, Gee gave them repeated sets and Hunt scored right on the death.

10-4 blew out to 10-16

Wrighty · Mar 28, 2026

3rdstriker said:
We also do have to put up with these combinations now as juggling chairs around will be detrimental to our season

100 percent - now we have uprooted our back line we must commit to it for 4-5 games at least I will be deeply dissapointed in Webby if he flip flops in the other direction next week.

JustLikeStartingOver · Mar 28, 2026

Tookey 2.0 said:
Another thing that has to be said is the bounce of the ball. I thought in the Roosters game we had all the luck - the ball went to ground a few times ans we still ended up scoring. Imo this was the square up game where we had the opposite luck.

Yeah it don't take much to have different outcomes, dwz drops an intercept, drops another one in grounding, boyd kick slightly too long, 7 tackle set, sin bin, boyd keep moving across instead of planting himself in front of the runner, probably get an obstruction call, bunch of 50:50 kick contests fell there way. Twice they dropped the ball almost immediately after kickoffs and we didn't make them pay, very unlikely to see that happen again

Didn't like seeing Barnett getting so many passes in traffic on the edge, looked like he was barely clinging on to them, go out the back to Pompey he's pretty good in those situations.

Wrighty · Mar 28, 2026

Really high quality analysis posts by everyone. I like Juststartingovers points above. And yes Beastmode is correct, you are always in for a tough night when Gee referees.
Maybe we are better at analysing and make our best posts when we lose because that is what we are used to ? Some Gallows humour there for all of you.

Matiunz · Mar 28, 2026

Wrighty said:
And Matuinz my memory is, someone to tell me if I am wrong, the tigers scored off the Ford PTB turn over and it was a critical try that killed our spirit. So yes there were two defining moments in the game I agree.

I am interested in your take on events about how cynical Pampey's professional foul was or wasn't. My initial reaction was that I was deeply dissapointed in Adam. He has never done anything remotely cynical before and our entire Warriors team since I began watching in 2018 we have never done a professional foul before. This was new territory for us.
I am proud of the warriors play but this year we have been a bit weird as Erin Clarke got us marched ten metres in game one for back chat if I recall. we have never ever back chatted before and our guys wouldn't dream of it no matter how the bad the call is. So I hope a pattern is not setting in over "over competitiveness" and wanting to win so much that we are starting to bend the rules on purpose and act outside of the spirit of the game which I love and they love as players.

Yeah the ptb was a critical error. Tigers had just scored a run against the play try that gave the Tigers ‘something’ for their efforts but we were still well on top, they then score off the ptb error and have their tails up and never look back.
The Pompey scenario (just my impression) he seemed to be ready to get back in the defensive line but saw the Tigers player looking like he was trying to get back into the field of play (he wasn’t running directly back to the 20m) he seemed to think “oh shit it’s play on” and react. Again just my impression but I thought the Tigers player did that intentionally to draw the penalty.
In hindsight it was dumb but I think he just made a split second call, I’d rather that than if the player was running it out and made a break because he didn’t tackle him

Stalefish540 · Mar 28, 2026

MrFrankWhite said:
Its Pompey that fucked that up, doesn't push out and then overcommits forcing Mets to try and tackle side on which let Doueihi use his reach with the fend

I didn't even reference the try.

But in that case the numbers were wrong already, TSS doesn't cover the space originally leaving them with a man short. Leka gets a bit stuck and slow to release, then Metcalf bites too hard on the decoy leaving Pompey in no mans land with a 3 on 2.

Theres a number of issues in that specific try for the whole edge, but jersey grabbing wasn't going to solve anything much like Ali's attempts on Billy Smith.

CWC · Mar 28, 2026

Matiunz said:
Yeah the ptb was a critical error. Tigers had just scored a run against the play try that gave the Tigers ‘something’ for their efforts but we were still well on top, they then score off the ptb error and have their tails up and never look back.
The Pompey scenario (just my impression) he seemed to be ready to get back in the defensive line but saw the Tigers player looking like he was trying to get back into the field of play (he wasn’t running directly back to the 20m) he seemed to think “oh shit it’s play on” and react. Again just my impression but I thought the Tigers player did that intentionally to draw the penalty.
In hindsight it was dumb but I think he just made a split second call, I’d rather that than if the player was running it out and made a break because he didn’t tackle him

Should either tackle him back to the in goal and claim he didn’t hear the whistle or just leave him alone

Laban needs to stop looking at the ref after borderline flops or tackles too lol, Erin was putting his hands up for some plays too, I was like dont give away body language cues lol

MrFrankWhite · Mar 28, 2026

Stalefish540 said:
I didn't even reference the try.

But in that case the numbers were wrong already, TSS doesn't cover the space originally leaving them with a man short. Leka gets a bit stuck and slow to release, then Metcalf bites too hard on the decoy leaving Pompey in no mans land with a 3 on 2.

Theres a number of issues in that specific try for the whole edge, but jersey grabbing wasn't going to solve anything much like Ali's attempts on Billy Smith.

There was quite a few times I noticed Leka in yesterdays game and I dont think any of them were good

CWC · Mar 28, 2026

How did we end up with Pompey on the right and Met on his inside, which side was Met defending in again?

Stalefish540 · Mar 28, 2026

MrFrankWhite said:
That whole right edge just fucking clocked off waiting for half time. Broncos, Panthers Storm all score there and we dont. Not because there's no cohesion, but because players were being lazy, taking shortcuts

Seemed like that happened on a few occasions last night. Dummy half looked up and we didn't have everyone switched on pouring through like previous weeks.

Hats of to the Tigers though. Like we did in previous weeks, they soaked up the pressure and had a late flurry ending with a convincing win.

Stalefish540 · Mar 28, 2026

MrFrankWhite said:
There was quite a few times I noticed Leka in yesterdays game and I dont think any of them were good

Agreed, the whole Leka must be starting because of xyz try/run is bit tiring.

He'll get there over time. But Capewell and Laban are the obvious starters for the time being for their abilities to do the core roles of an edge backrower well.

Rick O’Shay · Mar 28, 2026

Bluecat said:
Some members of this forum are fickle.
For many up until game time we were 40 pont winners with a championship winning team. And then after the game we want to replace the backline and some of the forwards. And teach the coach how to coach. I think sprinting out of the blocks like we have has made people forget reality.

Last years issues haven't gone away. We are still short of a right centre. CNK, Adam Pompey, RTS, and DWZ are still our best available backs in their positions. They are all competent tradesmen and individually in a better backline they would shine. Together they are ok. When we are winning up front they look good. When we're not they get exposed.
Pompey and RTS are catching flak after last night. 9 times out of 10 both do a good job.

Our forwards have shortcomings that need managing. Leka is not a starting player. Not yet. And he is definitely not a centre. Niukore has experience but he also has issues. Jackson Ford is superman when we are on top. When he's been bashed for an hour he can have handling issues. That's on the coach to spell him before he does. Capewell is getting older. The other young guys coming through are great but they are a long way from being experienced established players.

We need to cut these guys some slack. Yes they got beaten by what was on paper a weaker team and we were out coached and outplayed. We have done the same to other clubs. We'll learn

I also think Tanah Boyd may have caused some issues for the club. He has taken a caretaker role and he has shone beyond most people's expectation. The club has gone all in on Luke Metcalf and it is going to take careful handling to get both players performing at their best. But their best may take time to come out.

We will get beaten this season. We will probably even get our pants pulled down at some stage. But we're on track I'm sure. I'm not expecting a premiership this year. But I am looking forward to the rest of this season and to the next few seasons after this one

Wrighty said:
And Matuinz my memory is, someone to tell me if I am wrong, the tigers scored off the Ford PTB turn over and it was a critical try that killed our spirit. So yes there were two defining moments in the game I agree.

I am interested in your take on events about how cynical Pampey's professional foul was or wasn't. My initial reaction was that I was deeply dissapointed in Adam. He has never done anything remotely cynical before and our entire Warriors team since I began watching in 2018 we have never done a professional foul before. This was new territory for us.
I am proud of the warriors play but this year we have been a bit weird as Erin Clarke got us marched ten metres in game one for back chat if I recall. we have never ever back chatted before and our guys wouldn't dream of it no matter how the bad the call is. So I hope a pattern is not setting in over "over competitiveness" and wanting to win so much that we are starting to bend the rules on purpose and act outside of the spirit of the game which I love and they love as players.

Pompey has a track record. Didn't he do a jersey grab on a Bronco in Napier a year or two back which cost us the winning try?

CWC · Mar 28, 2026

Stalefish540 said:
Seemed like that happened on a few occasions last night. Dummy half looked up and we didn't have everyone switched on pouring through like previous weeks.

Hats of to the Tigers though. Like we did in previous weeks, they soaked up the pressure and had a late flurry ending with a convincing win.

TBH even Laban’s first try was clunky and his combo with boyd was clunky before that too. Weird

Stalefish540 · Mar 28, 2026

CWC said:
TBH even Laban’s first try was clunky and his combo with boyd was clunky before that too. Weird

Can't remember exactly, but felt like he bounced out late to an overs line which is a really tough line to do at speed. Thought that was impressive more than anything.