The home side continued to turn on the style at the Nines.
The New Zealand Warriors stamped themselves as the hottest team at the NRL Auckland Nines with two impressive victories over Canberra and Manly in front of a frantic home crowd at Eden Park.
After giving the Raiders a 25-14 defeat in their first outing of the tournament – the fifth match of the day – the Vodafone Warriors followed up with a superb 27-4 dissection of the Sea Eagles in the 13th game to become the second team after the Eels to register two wins (the Panthers would also join them).
The results left them topping the Yellow Pool with four points with North Queensland and Manly both on two points. The Vodafone Warriors meet the Cowboys in their final pool match at 1.45pm tomorrow looking to make it three from three going into the quarter-finals.
Carrying the title of tournament favourites the Vodafone Warriors made hesitant starts to each of their contests today by giving up possession from the kick-off both times – and conceding an early try each time as well.
Each time they recovered brilliantly and put a strong mark on the event with their second win of the day.
FULLTIME
WARRIORS 27 (S Johnson bonus try; S Kata, D Peyroux, D Fusitua, T Lolohea tries; S Johnson 3/4, S Tomkins 1/1 goals) def
SEA EAGLES 4 (J Hasson try; D Cherry-Evans 0/1 goals)
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