Resilience.
It's a word so often used to describe NZ Warriors this season and a phrase rarely used to describe the Warriors' sides of old.
And resilient is what the Warriors had to be again on Friday night to claim a seventh straight win against the near-bottom St George Dragons, securing a top-four spot fans could've only dreamed about coming into 2023.
Friday night nearly got off to the worst possible start, after Marata Niukore allowed the kickoff to bounce.
The error led to Dragons centre Zac Lomax tipping the ball into the air, regathering and crossing over to what looked like the opening try. However, the bunker deemed Lomax had knocked the ball on.
But, as the Warriors have so often done this season, they rallied and went on to score the opening two tries en route to an eventual - albeit untidy - 18-6 win against a gritty Dragons side with nothing to lose.
Post-match, coach Andrew Webster again hailed his side's resilience and their ability to defend their own line.
"I thought the boys defended unbelievably tonight," he said. "I thought that was the best part of our game.
"We weren't really disciplined at times - or a lot of times - we let them out of their own end, didn't build any pressure but… really proud of the boys, the way they defended and [we're in] the top-four. Unbelievable achievement for the club and the whole club should be really proud."
Captain Tohu Harris echoed Webster's comments about the side's resilience - and knows they're going to need much more of it come playoffs.
"A lot of those finals games come down to how you defend and you're constantly under pressure, and how you defend in those moments is key to winning those games," Harris said.
"We certainly put ourselves under a lot of pressure with our discipline [tonight] and I thought we defended really well - especially on our line - but we just can't afford to have that kind of discipline in the bigger games towards the end of the year."
Webster also saluted his side for sticking to the game plan.
"We put the ball in the corner really well, so we kicked really well, put them in there and I think we gave away three or four penalties in the second half out of the corner," he said.
"The rest of the defence, the rest of the attack - our style of play - [I] could not fault it. Everything was OK.
"We didn't take a couple of opportunities with some tries disallowed and stuff like that but, honestly, tonight was different to the last three or four weeks… If we had gotten our discipline right when they were coming out of the corner, we would've put them under a lot of pressure."
