NZ Warriors captain Tohu Harris hopes their homecoming win over Wests Tigers can lift the struggling club to a successful final third of the NRL season.
The Auckland-based side marked their return with a special 22-2 victory to break a seven-game losing streak in front of soldout Mt Smart Stadium.
The Warriors hadn't played a game at home for more than 1000 days, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but didn't disappoint home fans with a much-needed two points.
Harris scored the game's first try, much to the delight of a rocking fanbase, and along with under-pressure half Shaun Johnson, was instrumental in the win.
The skipper views the result as the ideal launching pad to kickstart a turnaround, with the club sitting in 13th on the ladder.
"I certainly think this is a performance that we need to build on the back of," he said.
"We've had a tough run the past couple of months. We wanted to wipe the slate clean and start fresh today, and I thought we did a good job of that.
"We can't go backwards now, we've got to build off the back of it and we've shown we can put the effort in for each other.
"There's no excuses for us going forward."
Warriors interim coach Stacey Jones agrees with Harris and is confident his players can take the momentum into their next game.
"It's about resetting ourselves, starting afresh and I think something like this week, what happened tonight can do that," he said.
While their performance wasn't always pretty, it was much-improved from the one that saw them trounced by the Penrith Panthers in their previous outing.
Harris credits the supporters for spurring the team onto victory and admits being back at Mt Smart Stadium was an emotional experience.
"It was a very special moment and all the players feel privileged to be part of it," he said.
"It was unreal, the noise that the crowd were making. Just a surreal feeling of being back at home, running out at Mt Smart, replicating the very first runout.
"We've been training here all week, we've got our own lockers and everything just belongs to us. It felt right, it felt like we were at home, the feeling all week was just a mixture of excitement and eagerness to get out there.
"We've had a lot of good support away from here the last three years, but there's nothing like having the support here at home."
Join us for live updates of the Warriors v Parramatta Eels NRL clash on July 15
