Tohu Harris: Former Warriors Captain on the team's NRL opener victory over the Sydney Roosters

Is this the Warriors’ year? 

The team put on an emphatic performance, smashing the Sydney Roosters 42-18 in their NRL season opener last night.  

Chanel Harris-Tavita grabbed two of the Warriors seven tries, as they refused to settle on their 22-6 halftime lead. 

Former Captain Tohu Harris joined D’Arcy to unpack the clash. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waltergrave from News Talk SED be.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Joined now by our brand new league correspondent. Maybe might
being called that, Harris, Welcome to the program. I trust
you well, and I'm still smiling ear to ear about
that forty two eighteen win result last night. And I'd
been going, eh.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, how good. I'm smiling at here too. It was awesome, it.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Was, But was it all that when you look at
the score forty two eighteen? It was almost a bit
generous if you were not to have seen the game.
It was still it was still tight enough, wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yeah? Absolutely, And you can see this different. There are
different moments in the game, like the Rooster's made a
lot of line breaks. But I guess the most pleasing
thing for me was how the Warriors team they scrambled,
They always had people in the picture, and they were
able to I guess, turn momentum back in their favor
after a couple of Roosters tries. And that's what you

(01:05):
want to say the end. The team as a team
that have that resilience to turn turn that momentum around
in go and score some more points.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Would you be concerned from a coaching perspective at some
of the tries that were scored by the Roosters, because
it looks like sometimes in the middle it opened up
a wee bit and was a little too easy. So defensively,
maybe some structure in there didn't quite work out or
was it the application from from some of the players Defensively.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
I think I think it might. It might be a
little bit of both. It's you know, there's certainly a
lot to work on. They they wouldn't have wanted to
give that many line breaks up and saying that it
was the players like James Tedesco and and Billy Smith,
and you're going to see them see that from them
every week against any team they're playing. Right, it's, you know,

(01:57):
the quality of player that the roosters of Roosters have.
It's very hard to defend against. But like their standards
are high and they're going to keep working so that
they can, you know not. Like I said, the most
pleasing thing was after a few line breaks, after some
close calls, they were able to turn the momentum back

(02:20):
in their favor and go down the other end and
score some more points. And that's if we can see
that on a consistent base, it's going to be a
really good Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
And you saw a wonderful try from a guy who
just turned up first touch scores liquor that wrecker. I looked,
it was like, is that you're kidding me? Of course
as well, the superstar written all over him and it
looks like he's not brought into the hype.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
No, he's such a good kid, like the the the
young group that the Warriors having the team at the moment,
so that there's Lequa, there's Demitric Jacob Ali, like these
boys that they've got such good heads on their shoulders,
like they enjoy that that moment, that spotlight, but they

(03:06):
know what I guess, the important things that give them
the opportunity to be there. So it's yeah, they're definitely
kids that don't let the moment get too far ahead
of themselves. They they put in a lot of work
and it's just it's so good to see them have
those moments and games like that. It's awesome.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
We've got a situation where there's no bonnet and there's
no metcalf. I mean, there are two instrumental players in
the side, so making it difficult I'd suggest later on
the piece when Weiby has to make that selection and
when when you look at the performance of Tanner, boy
this this looks good because injuries happen, right, It's going

(03:46):
to happen throughout the end. You need these guys playing
their best football and required.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, absolutely Tanne was outstanding and on the bench or
starting like they did such a good job. And it's
such positive signs for the Warriors moving forward because you
get quality players like Mitch and Luke coming back in

(04:13):
and the coaches are going to have to seriously think
about it how they bring them in or do they
put them straight into the stay in lineup or do
they bring them off the bench, So that there's going
to be discussions because of how these players have progressed
and the form that they can have. And that's a
good headache to have for a coach, is to have

(04:35):
more than seventeen players that are high quality, first grade players.
So yeah, it's only positive for the Warriors. So hopefully
they can they can keep this momentum going leading into
week two and onwards.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
One last thing for you, and thanks so much for
joining us. Been a privilege and a pleasure to have
you on Todd who if you had your mean ask
captain's hat on and you're being cruel, what would you
point out to be now, don't do that again. This
is a worry.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Well, it is just the defensive side. And like I said,
they are the Roosters are a high quality attacking team.
But you know, for a team that wants to have
high standards, you've got to fix those those line breaks
where they came from in the middle of the field.
You don't you don't want teams to go through the
middle of you. You'd prefer them to go around you

(05:25):
if they are going to make the in roads. So, yeah,
it's just those little things. How do we tighten up
our defense make it a little bit harder for teams
whether they've got those quality players or not. You've you've
got to work out ways to to be better in
those areas. And and yeah, that's that's what I imagine

(05:47):
they will work on the And the pleasing thing is,
and you can tell that they've worked on it a
lot throughout the preseason is anytime there was an offload,
the defense moved fast towards the ball. But there are
players in this in the shot. If there are line breaks,
there are people chasing back and for boar hit the
ground they had there was blue jerseys around it. So

(06:11):
that's all effort and we saw that right through the
whole night. It's just that little detail and defense to
try and sort of tighten it up a little bit.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
All Right, you've got the job. Lead correspondent now for
All Sport Breakfast and Sports Talk to Harris. Thanks for
your time, mate, you go well look after yourself.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Hey, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
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