Coach Andrew Webster conceded his NZ Warriors side had learned some hard lessons during Friday's defeat to South Sydney Rabbitohs, not least of which was how to approach wet weather rugby league.
The Rabbitohs laid the blueprint at Mt Smart with a ruthless display of execution in both defence and attack on their way en route to a comprehensive 28-6 win, handing the Warriors their biggest defeat of their season so far.
Ultimately, it was a lopsided contest in Auckland, as the visitors overcame some early indiscipline - that, crucially the Warriors failed to capitalise upon - before stealing the momentum late on the first half and never relenting in the unyielding rain.
With imperious half Cody Walker at the helm, the Rabbitohs offence refused to be restricted by the conditions, crossing for some showstopping tries.
But the two most telling statistics from the match were the completion rate and errors. The Sydneysiders completed a remarkable 94 percent of the sets (35 /37) with just five mistakes, while the Warriors only managed 76 percent (26/34) with 12 putdowns.
"We're not not disappointed at how hard we tried," said Webster after the match.
"We were going after things. We were trying to be assertive. We've had really good defensive line speed. We were trying to get him down their end - just we weren't very smart.
"Trying hard will only get you in the contest, it won't get you the win, and they were just so smart and clinical. Tonight was a night of execution, how to execute a plan particularly in these conditions.
"Souths didn't come here to hit it up one out. They moved the ball and they kicked well behind us. I think Cody Walker particularly was just class in the way they executed their plan and their completions compared to ours were very good.
"You can see why execution had a big part in the win tonight."
By the end of the opening quarter, most of the betting money would have been going the Warriors' way. They came out of the gates strongly, dominating both territory and possession, in large part due to a heavy penalty count against the Rabbitohs.
But after the Warriors had only managed to turn their wealth of early field position into a 6-0 lead, the Bunnies' first four tackles in their opposition redzone ended with a try to Alex Johnston.
A sinbinning of Addin Fonua-Blake for a high tackle - albeit, a dubious decision considering the Bunnies' three early penalties conceded for dangerous shots - was instantly punished by a soft try to Cam Murray, and all of a sudden the Rabbitohs had an unlikely lead going into halftime.
That momentum snowballed in the second half, which led to what Webster assessed as the Warriors forcing the issue rather than building pressure patiently, and then seizing the opportunity to strike.
"When you're parked on someone's tryline, you want to be able to execute and score points. But at the end of the day we were 6-0 up so if we defend well and we get the rest of our game on, we would have been fine.
"I feel like the drama was that we went down there after that period and we wanted to score all the time straight away. Maybe there was some frustration or a bit of a hangover from that period.
"But I didn't leave that 20 minute period frustrated, worried about it at all. What you do next is the most important thing. And if we build pressure and did that for the rest of the game, then no one would even be talking about the first 20 minutes.
"We just went completely away from our plan ,and what we wanted to do and how we want to build momentum, build pressure.
"In the end, we were just absorbing all the time and they were kicking behind us and we were constantly turning around.
"They were way smarter than what we were tonight."
Their thrilling golden point win over the Sharks aside, the Warriors haven't experienced a lot of it so far this season - and it showed.
Webster pointed to a series of forced offloads, ill-advised passes, and bundlings into touch that exemplified the team's misguided approach to wet weather rugby league.
"We tried to go around them to try to play through them, but you can't do that in these conditions," noted Webster. "We tried to pull the trigger too much.
"We wanted to use the football but we want to use it and be direct, not going sideways because you saw we got dragged and touched late in the game.
"That was just one example of many where our mindset wasn't through the opposition, it was trying to get around them too much."
With their beloved side fresh off three straight 30-plus point wins for the first time since 2007, the Warriors faithful turned out in droves (22,162 to be precise), braving the driving rain to pack out Go One Media Stadium for a match that had been sold out since Sunday.
With four games against teams in their direct vicinity on the ladder, this was a golden chance to move into the top four against a team that has proven their nemesis in recent years.
Instead, the Rabbitohs rediscovered their mojo after a difficult stretch to record their 14th win in their past 15 games against the Auckland-based side, leapfrogging the Warriors - who drop to sixth - up to fifth on the ladder.
The Warriors' vaunted forward pack were humbled by their Souths counterparts. Addin Fonua-Blake's 139 running metres led the hosts, but were bested by Rabbitohs Hame Sele (158m), Keaon Koloamatangi (149m), and Taane Milne (142m).
While the performance was undoubtedly the Warriors' worst under Webster, there's no hint of panic.
"I think every time we have a moment like this, it's going to make us better," he said.
"You learn a lot from losses. There's a lot of hard lessons, right? But we'll do what we do every week. We'll review it and we'll get better, for sure.
"I think we'll get a lot out of tonight… it won't define us.
"We've got a big week of work to get going to get a win next week."
That begins with a clash against the Eels in Parramatta next Saturday.
