By Richard Becht
Nines tries including doubles to Braxton Stanley and Tuimoala Lolohea carried the Vodafone Warriors to a 48-12 victory over Newtown, their fourth win on end in today’s eighth-round VB New South Wales Cup encounter at Henson Park.
The scoring action was strictly one way from the get-go, the Vodafone Warriors bolting out to a 16-0 lead at a point-a-minute pace and showing no mercy at any stage of the contest.
By halftime they were 28-6 ahead and rattled on another 20 points in the second spell to finish well clear.
There were concerns for the Vodafone Warriors though, when they had giant back rower Sam Lousi sent off for a striking offence midway through the second half. Lousi’s brother Sione and Newtown’s Shannon Gallant were also sent to the sin bin after the same incident reducing the Vodafone Warriors to 11 players for 10 minutes.
It failed to slow them down on a day when they put the Jets to the sword.
Fullback Kevin Locke, loose forward Sione Lousi and centre Carlos Tuimavave featured strongly in first half scoring plays as the Vodafone Warriors set about building on their run of wins against Cronulla, Canterbury-Bankstown and Illawarra.
The Jets, coming into the game with only one win this season, were played out of the clash by halftime. In the second half the electric Lolohea sparked up with back-to-back tries and second rower John Palavi showed tremendous pace in scoring the final try from long range.
Lolohea also kicked five conversions from seven attempts to finish with 18 points.
The Rohan Smith-coached side is well-placed now on 11 points on the table and will be on the road for the third straight week taking on Penrith next Saturday while the Jets are at home again to face Manly.
New Zealand Warriors 48 (B Stanley 2, T Lolohea 2, R Faitala Mariner, C Tuimavave, M Sio, J Tua, J Palavitries; T Lolohea 6, K Locke goals) def. Newtown Jets 12 (S Gallant, K Evans tries; S Taukeiaho 2 goals) at Henson Park.
