NZ Warriors have washed the bitter taste of last weekend's miserable outing on the Gold Coast with a 32-16 win over Brisbane Broncos in Auckland on Saturday.
The Warriors ran in six tries to three against the depleted Broncos, who - without their State of Origin stars - fought back admirably after falling behind on the scoreboard early, before the Warriors pulled clear down the stretch.
The returning halves combination of Te Maire Martin and Chanel Harris-Tavita were hugely influential for the Warriors, with Martin providing three tries off his boot and scoring one of his own, while Harris-Tavita claimed a double.
The hosts came out of the blocks with plenty of energy and were rewarded for their breakneck pace with two quick tries to tries to Harris-Tavita and Martin to take a 12-0 lead after just 15 minutes.
Ten minutes later, that advantage extended to 16 after Harris-Tavita's desperation dive to get a hand on a Martin grubber.
The Broncos pulled one back from a stray bomb on the Warriors line, then narrowly avoided conceding another when Adam Pompey was ruled to have impeded a tackler, denying Harris-Tavita a first-half hat-trick.
The Warriors went into halftime with a 16-6 edge, which arguably didn't reflect the wealth of possession (64 percent) and territory (75 percent) in their favour.
The Broncos began the second stanza with renewed purpose, capping a period of tryline pressure with a try to wing Deine Mariner to cut their deficit to six points.
Once the Warriors regained some quality field position, Martin's sublime early-tackle grubber bounced up perfectly for a charging Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to put the locals back out to 22-10 with a quarter to play.
Xavier Willison rampaging run to the line elicited an immediate response from the Warriors, with Martin's precision kicking coming to the fore again - this time with a perfectly weighted high ball for Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to reel in and score.
Freddy Lussick provided the final punctuation point for the Warriors, doubling behind Mitch Barnett to sneak over the chalk.
The Warriors now next travel to Sydney to face the Bulldogs next Saturday.
