The Warriors scrapped their way to a tough victory over the Cowboys on Saturday afternoon and rookie coach Andrew Webster conceded it was a “hard watch”.
New Zealand made 13 errors to the Cowboys’ seven, while they also made 55 tackles in their own 20-metre zone in their 22-14 win.
The Warriors consistently handed North Queensland strong field position but somehow were able to keep Todd Payten’s side to only 14 points — and it all comes down to “resilience” according to Webster.
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Despite making 69 more tackles and completing at nine per cent lower than their opponent, the Warriors still secured two points.
“I felt like in the first four rounds everyone used the word resilience, I felt like we had that on our try line and I felt like we had that in never giving up,” Webster said in the post-match press conference.
“We certainly had it tonight… we are not going to be perfect, we certainly weren’t perfect tonight, we knew how to make it hard but we got that resilience back on our tryline so that was exciting.
“There’s things that frustrate you, and gee it was a hard watch, that’s for sure but we walk away really proud but knowing we need to improve.”
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Webster himself is only seven games into his full-time head coaching career after leaving his role as an assistant of the Panthers.
But the 41-year-old has managed to instil a toughness missing from the New Zealand outfit in years gone by.
The Warriors also had the worst defensive record in the NRL in 2022, conceding 700 points and after seven rounds in 2023 they have only allowed rivals to score only 136.
Webster explained his team will celebrate their five early seasons wins, but it isn’t time to take anything for granted.
“I just come away feeling like it is never easy to win in the NRL ever, if you start taking them for granted and being negative, now is not the moment to do that,” Webster said.
“Now is the moment to celebrate it, we were really good… we will cover the parts we aren’t happy with, but my initial feeling is I’m very proud.
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“The moment is now to celebrate, not that I’m doing cartwheels, but enjoy it and get back to work and sort it (the issues).”
Warriors skipper Tohu Harris believes his team should be “proud” of their efforts after putting themselves on the backfoot multiple times.
“Each and every week is a hard slog to get the two points so you can’t be frustrated by that,” Harris said.
“Especially after coming away, having so many good moments throughout the game but also then so many times we dug ourselves into a hole and forced ourselves to have to defend so much.
“But to come away with the two points, you have to be proud of that effort and proud we’re able to withhold that much pressure.”
