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NZPA/Wayne Drought
No further injuries a bright spot for Warriors
The New Zealand Warriors came through their defeat to new National Rugby League leaders South Sydney with one major piece of good news.
Unlike the first three rounds of the season, they ended the match yesterday without any new injuries.
"That's a plus," coach Ivan Cleary said.
"That's the first time. That's the positive out of the day."
The Warriors had eight of their squad unavailable for the 22-16 loss in Auckland because of injury.
Those who sat out the match included first-grade regulars Steve Price, Brent Tate, Manu Vatuvei, Lance Hohaia, Evarn Tuimavave and Ben Matulino.
Centre Tate has a season-ending knee injury, while prop Tuimavave, who hasn't played this year, is expected to be out for some time with a neck problem.
The rest are shorter term casualties, but Cleary was unable to shed any light on whether any of them would be back for the trip to Newcastle next Sunday.
"There's a few guys not too far off, but I'm not sure about next week," he said.
He had no complaints about the effort of the players who took the field against the Rabbitohs.
They dominated territory for large passages, but came up against some enthusiastic South Sydney defence, particularly during a scoreless third quarter.
Cleary said teams usually went into games wanting to do the little things well and he believed the Warriors did that, but they could not turn that into enough points.
"We controlled the second half for so long and we just couldn't score and they scored an opportunist try," Cleary said.
