The Warriors’ bid for six straight wins for just the fourth time in club history fell short in a dour, fiery and error-riddled 16-10 loss to Canberra on a wet Sunday night at Mount Smart Stadium.
After building an 8-0 lead, the Warriors could only add a second-half penalty goal as the Raiders capitalised on the sin-binning of Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad to post eight unanswered points against a 12-man opponent.
Despite the absence of Mitch Barnett and James Fisher-Harris – and only 48 percent possession – the run metres and post-contact metres counts finished almost identical, while the Raiders were just in front for tackle-breaks (34 to 30) and line-breaks (3 to 2).
Uncharacteristically, though, the Warriors made a whopping 14 errors to the Raiders’ 10 in a stop-start affair that featured 17 penalties, 13 set restarts, five reports and three sin-bins.
The Warriors still rank first in the NRL for least errors per game (8.8) despite the drop-a-thon.
Low points
The Warriors’ return of one try and 10 points was their lowest at Mount Smart since their 28-6 loss to South Sydney in the wet in 2023.
The defeat to Canberra also denied the Warriors a historic 5-0 start to the season in New Zealand, having won their first three games at Mount Smart and the Anzac Day fixture in Christchurch in a travel-heavy first few months of the campaign.
Action Jackson
One of the breakout bargain buys of 2023 as a second-rower during the Warriors’ surge to the preliminary final, Jackson Ford endured an indifferent follow-up season that saw him moved from the edge to the middle – and eventually out of the side altogether.
But he’s been one of Andrew Webster’s standouts in 2025 after making a permanent switch to the middle forward rotation, averaging 129 metres per game – up from 103 in 2023 and ’24 – despite starting from the bench in all but two of his appearances so far.
Ford produced an immense 55-minute shift against the Raiders, leading the Warriors with a career-high 209 metres from 18 runs – along with five tackle-breaks – and topping the tackle count with 43.
The unassuming workhorse is averaging 32.6 tackles per game.
Roger that
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck plunged over for the Warriors’ only try on Sunday night to become just the 15th player to score 40 tries in first grade for the club.
Ten of Tuivasa-Sheck’s tries for the Warriors have now come from his 14 appearances on the wing, dotting down nine times in his last 10 starts on the flank.
In a strong performance against the Raiders,
RTS will have former teammates Konrad Hurrell (41), Ken Maumalo (44) and Solomone Kata (46) in his sights on the Warriors’ all-time tryscoring register before the end of 2025.
Meanwhile, Tuivasa-Sheck needs just five appearances to overtake Jazz Tevaga (138) as the 15th-most capped Warrior of all time.
Lucky Rabbitohs’ foot
This weekend the Warriors are chasing back-to-back wins over South Sydney for the first time since 2011-12 – and consecutive victories over the Rabbitohs in Australia for the first time since 2006-07.
Last year’s 34-4 rout at Accor Stadium in Round 5 was just the Warriors second win over Souths in 16 matches and their first in Sydney since 2011.
Number crunchers
Aside from Jackson Ford and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, a few other Warriors stuffed the stats sheet in a losing effort:
- Wayde Egan was the Warriors’ equal-top tackler with 43. He sits second on the NRL’s defensive charts with 503 tackles, behind only Cronulla hooker Blayke Brailey (528), who has played one more game.
- Erin Clark continues to do the business every week, churning out 16 runs for 147 metres and 37 tackles without a miss against the Raiders.
- Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad topped 200 running metres, made a line-break, had five tackle-breaks and racked up 11 tackles. The fullback is fifth in the NRL for average metres per game (191.7).
