Warriors coach Andrew McFadden has bemoaned his side's poor first half against the Wests Tigers on Saturday afternoon, with the Kiwi club going on to lose 34-26 despite a strong second-half comeback.
"It's not acceptable to start a game like that," McFadden said after the loss at Campbelltown Stadium.
"We fought back and got ourselves into it. If it wasn't for a couple of pretty poor errors at the end, we might have been able to sneak home with it. But it wasn't to be and we've got to learn from it."
The visitors fought back in the second stanza, scoring 22 straight points to get within two, but a late James Tedesco try – his second for the night – put an end to any hopes of a miracle win.
The Warriors mentor was visibly disappointed by the effort shown by his side but saw some positive signs in a free-flowing second forty minutes that the Warriors won 22-6.
McFadden conceded his side's seventh straight season-opening loss was more a result of mental lapses than anything else, and is hopeful new combinations will improve as the season progresses.
"It was a cliché game of two halves. We were really passive in the first half I thought, and they won the physical battle," he said.
"We sort of didn't match up with them there. Some consolation is that we managed to find a bit of energy and some purpose in the second half. I think at the very least we'll get a bit of confidence out of that.
"It's a mindset thing. We obviously got some momentum and momentum at this time of year is pretty critical. Once we got going it what hard to stop, just like they were in the first half."
