Warriors Nation could be forgiven for rubbing their eyes with a little extra vigour on Saturday morning, perhaps in the hope that the previous evening's abysmal outing against St George Illawarra Dragons was just a nasty nightmare.
The Dragons turned the tables on the bookies with their best display of the season at WIN Stadium, putting a lethargic Warriors side to the sword in a 30-12 hammering that will leave a battle scar on the hugely hyped NZ side.
Littered with indiscipline and errors, it was a highly uncharacteristic performance by a team which has prided itself on its accuracy and attention to detail over the past two years and arguably its most lacklustre of the Andrew Webster era.
Speaking after the match, the head coach himself had no hesitation identifying where he believed the buck stopped for his troops - on the defensive side of the ball.
"The way we defended, it didn't look like the way we defended [all season] particularly in the way we tackled," Webster said.
"I thought we completely lost the ruck, they blew us away, they ran so hard. Off the back of some poor discipline, I thought we lost our way defensively.
"Their momentum was fierce, and we weren't calm enough to get together and slow it down tonight.
"They're a good side, particularly when they have so much momentum. Off the back of it they've good players that can pull you apart and they did that well."
All seemed to be going to script for the Warriors through the opening quarter of the game, as they leaned on their metronomic pack to own the middle third of the park, gradually turning the screws and forcing mistakes from the Dragons.
They enjoyed huge territory and possession advantages early, and after repeated tryline raids on the back of some forced errors, Shaun Johnson skipped through the defensive line to open the scoring in a manner that suggested it may be a long night for the hosts.
But a determined tryline defensive stand by the Dragons almost immediately afterwards led to a piggyback penalty, one of three consecutive penalties St George would go on to score from to completely turn the tide of the contest.
"There are moments that can hurt, but we want to be that team that when moments don't go our way that we find a way to get back in the fight," Webster noted.
"Slow it down and get the momentum back. We work so hard and talk a lot about it.
"You can't have a poor attitude around errors and when things don't go your way."
Outstanding centre Zac Lomax snapped the eighth - and perhaps classiest - two-point field goal in competition history to beat the buzzer at halftime to give the Dragons a sudden 16-6 edge at the interval.
It was a manageable deficit for a Warriors side that has proven so adept at managing scoreboard deficits, as evidenced only the weekend prior in their efforts to salvage a draw against Manly Sea Eagles.
But it was Lomax who returned to torment the warriors, soaring to reel in a bomb on the opening set of the second half to supercharge his team's momentum.
The play essentially shut out any sniff of another heroic Warriors comeback and one Webster identified as a microcosm of his team's shortcomings on the evening.
"It was a great kick and a great contest, but they got an opportunity to put an attacking kick in because they just rolled us down the field," he explained.
"If you have a great defensive set, it's going to be a long kick and an easy transition for us. But it was a hard transition.
"Lomax we knew was a threat in the air, spoke about it all week, and we just gave them in the first set an attacking kick.
"I thought that summed up our defence tonight."
The Dragons operated a level of energy above in the second stanza, as the Warriors pack noticeably fatigued and offered minimal respite by a bench lacking in middle forward grunt.
The result drops the Warriors to a provisional ninth in the competition standings, facing a chance for redemption against Gold Coast Titans on Anzac Day, which Webster insists they welcome.
"It's a six-day turnaround, so the boys are going to get to play again soon and make it right, which is really cool," Webster said with a grin.
"Because I know the boys are really disappointed in there with the way they went tonight."
