The Warriors have lost back-to-back games for the first time this 2025 NRL season, with a 26-12 defeat to Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium compounded by knee injuries to Luke Metcalf and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad.
The depleted visitors fought back admirably from an 18-0 halftime deficit and were still in the contest until Broncos centre Gehamat Shibasaki’s 75th-minute sealer.
The Warriors had just 46 percent possession and completed their sets at an uncharacteristically poor 74 percent (the Broncos completed at 85 percent).
Unsurprisingly, given the way the Warriors were dominated physically in the first half, the Broncos won the run metres (1,552 to 1,351) and post-contact metres (516 to 390) counts handsomely, while they made a 36 tackle-breaks to the Warriors’ paltry 17.
The Broncos also won the penalty count 8-5 in a 2025 anomaly for the Warriors. The Warriors, curiously after offloading just once last week against Penrith, had 12 to the usually offload-happy Broncos’ six.
Glass half full despite setbacks
The Warriors’ back-to-back losses between byes – magnified by big injury blows – has been deflating after making a premiership-contending statement at Cronulla in Round 14.
But the Warriors will retain a top-four standing for at least the next two weeks and their 10-5 record is up there with the best the club has produced this deep into a season.
The 2002 eventual minor premiers remain the benchmark with an 11-4 record after 15 games. Stephen Kearney’s 2018 team also went 10-5, while the next best in Warriors history were the 2003 and 2023 outfits – both 9-6.
Halves streak ends
The devastating injury to the Warriors’ No.7 will end the unbroken run of halves pairing appearances for Luke Metcalf and Chanel Harris-Tavita at 15 games.
In 2024, the longest run a halves duo had together was just six matches – Shaun Johnson and Te Maire Martin. Johnson and Metcalf played 13 games in a row together during the watershed 2023 campaign.
Johnson and Leuluai finished 2016 on a 15-game streak, while you have to go back to 2015 – when Johnson and Towsend lined up together 18 times in a row – to find a run longer than Metcalf and Harris-Tavita’s.
Meanwhile, the current duo are the second-most successful halves pairing in Warriors history (minimum 15 games) in terms of win percentage:
WARRIORS’ WINNINGEST HALVES PAIRINGS (min. 15 games)
68.4% – Shaun Johnson and Luke Metcalf: 19 games (13 wins, 6 losses)
66.7% – Luke Metcalf and Chanel Harris-Tavita: 15 games (10 wins, 5 losses)
62.5% – Shaun Johnson and Blake Green: 16 games (10 wins, 6 losses)
60% – Brett Seymour and James Maloney: 20 games (12 wins, 8 losses)
58.3% – Grant Rovelli and Michael Witt: 30 games (17 wins, 1 draw, 12 losses)
58% – Stacey Jones and John Simon: 25 games (14 wins, 1 draw, 10 losses)
Warriors eye extension of Tiger dominance
The Warriors will come off the Round 18 bye at home looking for a ninth straight victory over Wests Tigers, who themselves are battling on a six-match losing streak as their 2025 campaign teeters on the brink. It would represent the Warriors’ outright second-longest winning run against any team.
Impressively, the first four matches of that run were while the Warriors were stranded in Australia during COVID, while they have since earned wins over the Tigers at Mt Smart in 2022 (22-2) and 2024 (28-16) either side of a Hamilton-hosted victory in 2023 (30-22).
The Warriors won a 26-24 thriller at Campbelltown in Round 4 this season.
WARRIORS’ LONGEST RIVALRY WINNING STREAKS
12 matches – v South Sydney Rabbitohs (1999-2007)
8 matches – v Gold Coast Titans (2011-14)
8 matches – v Wests Tigers (2020-25)
6 matches – v Gold Coast Titans (2015-18)
6 matches – v Canterbury Bulldogs (2019-23)
Number crunchers
A handful of Warriors managed to impress the statistically-minded on a tough afternoon:
- On top of his try, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck led the Warriors’ run-metres tally with 173 from 18 carries.
- James Fisher-Harris produced a hefty captain’s knock, leading the team’s forwards with 125 metres on 14 runs and making a team-high 38 tackles.
- Erin Clark maintained his industrious reputation on both sides of the ball with 16 runs for 120 metres and 35 tackles, plus three offloads.
- In just 36 minutes off the bench, Demetric Vaimauga reeled off 31 tackles, as well as making eight runs and popping two offloads.
- Chanel Harris-Tavita ran for over 100 metres with a line-break, had a key hand in one try and laid on the other, and made 13 tackles.
