The Newtown Jets crashed to a heavy 44-18 defeat at the hands of the New Zealand Warriors in their round eight clash in Auckland on Saturday.
The Jets were blown away early and never managed to recover, with the Kiwi side running away with the points in a dominating performance.
The Warriors began with plenty of purpose, four tries in the first 20 minutes seeing them go ahead 18-0.
A try to Sami Sauiluma on the stroke of half time, with the Sharks centre showing good strength to score, lifted the spirits of the Jets, more so when Todd Murphy converted from touch, with the team going to the break with the Warriors 18-6 in front.
They were given even more encouragement immediately after the break when Pat Politoni went over from dummy half and after Murphy again added the extras it was all of a sudden a contest at 18-12 to the home team.
Unfortunately that would be as close as the Newtown side would get, with the Warriors scoring twice in succession shortly after the Politoni touchdown to make it 28-12, virtually sealing the result.
The lone bright spot for the Newtown side in the remainder of the match was a second Sauiluma try, scored after the powerful centre showed good skill by re-gathering his own grubber kick.
The loss was the second in a row to the Newtown side after they had strung together four wins in succession.
Jets 18
Sami Sauiluma 2, Pat Politoni tries, Todd Murphy 3 goals
Lost to
NZ Warriors 44
