Warriors down Sharks, 30-16

The Warriors notched their maiden win of the 2010 NRL season and extended Cronulla's
losing streak to a sorry dozen matches with a 30-16 victory at Mt Smart Stadium on
Saturday.
Playing their first home game of the year, the Warriors recovered after giving up an
early 16-0 lead to run in two unanswered second-half tries to continue the Sharks'
woes.
Big winger Manu Vatuvei took advantage of some weak defence to bag a tryscoring
hat-trick for the Warriors, taking his impressive early-season tally to five
four-pointers in two games.
An aggressive start from the Warriors, reminiscent of the up-tempo opening against
Gold Coast last week, saw the hosts pile on three tries in the opening 20 minutes.
Hooker Aaron Heremaia opened the scoring with an easy try from dummy-half before
Vatuvei capitalised on a break by second rower Lewis Brown to add the Warriors'
second.
On his debut as skipper, Simon Mannering pounced on a well-placed grubber from Lance
Hohaia in the 17th minute and the Warriors looked on their way to a comfortable win.
But, mirroring their collapse in last week's 24-18 loss to the Titans, the Warriors
ran out of steam toward the end of the first half, allowing Cronulla to close the
gap to just two points at the break.
First, winger Luke Covell crossed for the Sharks and then centre Blake Ferguson,
with halfback Scott Porter converting both from the sideline and then adding a
penalty to leave the Warriors 16-14 ahead at halftime.
Porter landed another goal early in the second half to tie the scores before Vatuvei
swung the match the Warriors' way with two tries in six minutes.
Prop Sam Rapira sealed the victory when he forced his way over with six minutes to go.
The Warriors travel to Brisbane next weekend to tackle the Broncos, while the Sharks
host fellow winless cellar dwellers South Sydney.
The Warriors will be without halfback Brett Seymour, who missed Saturday night's
game against his former club after being ruled out for six weeks with a broken
thumb.