By Adam Kidd
The New Zealand Warriors bounced back from two straight losses to hand the Wentworthville Magpies a 30-6 thumping at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday.
The Warriors ran in six tries to one, with Solomone Kata scoring a hat-trick and terrorising the Magpies defence from the opening kick-off.
The Magpies were left to rue a tough day at the office, with unforced errors allowing the Warriors to dominate field position and make their opposition pay for their mistakes on several occasions.
New Zealand opened the scoring in the seventh minute with Steve Waetford throwing a pin point cut-out pass to find Jarrod Tua who beat some desperate cover defence to score.
The Warriors then showed their defensive prowess, denying Wentworthville several opportunities close to their line with strong defence that forced their opposition into unforced errors.
Solomone Kata then extended the home sides lead in the 23rd minute; finishing off some great lead up work from his forwards, who were able to offload several times, before diving over in the corner to lead 8-0.
Wentworthville were struggling to complete their sets and the Warriors made them pay once again when Dominique Peyroux found some space on the right hand side before linking with Ngataua Hukatai to score his sides third try, with Kata kicking his second sideline conversion to lead 16-0 at half-time.
New Zealand began the second half the way they finished the first, forcing Wentworthville into consecutive line drop outs, before Kata scored his second try of the game with an opportunistic run at the line that resulted in the winger grounding the ball inches from the sideline for a 20-0 lead.
The Magpies finally found themselves on the scoreboard in the 60th minute, with Api Pewhairangi forcing himself between defenders to keep his side in striking range of the Warriors with a quarter of the match remaining.
The joy was short lived however, with Kata and Tua combining for two quick tries that badly exposed the Magpies right edge defence once again.
The first coming when Kata and Tua linked together to send Kata over for his hat-trick after a brilliant passing exchange and the second when Tua finished off another crisp back line movement from the Warriors to put the icing on a dominant display.
The Warriors will look to stay on a roll when they head to the Central Coast on Sunday to tackle what is sure to be a desperate Wyong outfit while Wenty return home to Ringrose Park to host the Sharks on Sunday.
NZ Warriors 30 (S Kata 3, J Tua 2, N Hukatai tries; S Kata 3 goals) def. Wentworthville Magpies 6 (A Pewhairangi try; B Jones goal) at Mt Smart Stadium.
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