Warriors v Broncos at Forsyth Barr Stadium. Photo by Craig
Baxter.
In any sport, you need an element of luck and the
occasional decision to go your way.
There was none of that for the Broncos in their loss to the
Warriors in Dunedin on Saturday night.
The Broncos had five tries disallowed. Some were due to solid
Warriors defence mixed with player error, and others were
simply 50-50 calls that went the Warriors' way.
''It would have been nice to get a couple of those 50-50
calls, but in the end we have to be more clinical in our
finishing,'' Broncos coach Anthony Griffin said after the
game.
''I thought we created a lot of opportunities and that's a
positive thing.''
Griffin was impressed with the form of second-rower Matt
Gillett and centre Justin Hodges, and pleased with the
work-rate from prop Sam Thaiday and hooker Andrew McCullough,
who were playing their first games since shoulder surgery.
He described pre-season games as ''necessary evils'' because
they were great for getting players conditioned, but there
was also the odd niggly injury which was inevitable.
Griffin is still sweating on the make-up of his halves
combination. On Saturday, Corey Norman started at stand-off
outside halfback Peter Wallace, before Scott Prince came off
the interchange bench to partner Wallace.
Wallace thought his combination with both Norman and Prince
went well, and acknowledged Griffin had some tough decisions
to make.
''I think the three of us will work well and at different
stages of the year there will be different combinations,''
Wallace said.
Missing out on five tries was disappointing but little could
be done about it, Wallace said.
Both Griffin and Wallace described the stadium as
''beautiful'', and Wallace said it was a great place to play,
with an electric atmosphere.
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