The Warriors have made a victorious NRL return to New Zealand, beating the Wests Tigers 22-2 at a sold-out Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland.
In Saturday's second match, St George Illawarra held off Canberra amid much drama at full-time to win 12-10 in wet conditions in Wollongong.
The Warriors' win snapped a seven-match losing streak but more importantly re-establishes the club on home soil after playing in Australia since the beginning of the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It had been 1,038 days since the Warriors last played at Mt Smart Stadium.
Given the Tigers and Warriors came in sitting 14th and 15th respectively on the ladder and have both been averaging less than 17 points a match, it was not a surprise that the match quickly became an arm-wrestle.
The Warriors had the better of the early exchanges and had looked to have taken the lead through a darting run by Wayde Egan from dummy-half, but it was ruled against because there was no clear grounding on the replay.
They settled for a penalty goal not long after through the boot of Shaun Johnson.
It took until almost the half-hour mark for the first try when Warriors captain Tohu Harris took it upon himself to crash over from a good pass by Egan.
This was greeted with a huge rapture from the big crowd, particularly in the packed southern stand at the end of the field where Harris crossed.
Shortly after, a good Warriors set saw Johnson send a bomb out wide for Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to contest, with the end result seeing the ball come loose to be dived on by Chanel Harris-Tavita for their second converted try.
The only scoring the Tigers could muster in the first half was an Adam Doueihi penalty goal just before the break.
If the first half was a grind, then the second half was even more so.
While both sides had few problems completing their sets, line breaks were rare with the Tigers' best chance coming off a Luke Garner run that ended with a knock-on.
Given the defensive nature of the game, another Johnson penalty goal in the 65th minute to push it out to a three-score lead looked to be enough to win it for the Warriors.
But Johnson had one last piece of magic for the 26,000-strong crowd when he popped a perfect kick over for Watene-Zelezniak to bat back for Jesse Arthars to score in the corner.
Johnson's sideline conversion sealed a solid, if unspectacular win, but it is unlikely any Warriors fans will be worried about how it was achieved.
"We've had a lot of good support away, but there's nothing like the support we get here," Harris said.
"Every single person was following and supporting us. It meant a lot and gave us a lot of energy."
Dragons edge Raiders in dramatic finish
St George Illawarra strengthened its push to play finals after claiming an ugly win over Canberra following a controversial ending to the match.
The Raiders had a gilt-edged chance to snatch victory in the last six seconds when Joe Tapine was tackled five metres out from the St George Illawarra line.
Jack Bird and Ben Hunt deliberately laid over the top of the Raiders prop and while signalling a six-again, referee Peter Gough did not award Canberra a penalty to potentially tie the match up.
The victory moves the Dragons into eighth spot and leaves the Raiders languishing four points behind them in 11th place.
Canberra five-eighth Jack Wighton struggled to impose himself on the match — his first since missing State of Origin II with COVID-19 — and was below par, making four errors and enduring a torrid time with the boot.
The 29-year-old gifted the Dragons their first try of the afternoon when he tapped a short drop-out back into the hands of Talatau Amone and also failed to make touch from a penalty kick with the match in the balance.
In atrocious conditions in front of 7,069 spectators, Amone got his first try of the season in the 18th minute.
Zac Lomax missed the conversion but added a penalty after another Raiders drop-out failed to travel past 10 metres.
Canberra hit back through fullback Xavier Savage before Moses Suli burst his way just prior to half-time to give the Dragons a 12-4 lead at the break.
Wighton fumbled the opening kick-off of the first half and only some smart defensive positioning from Savage prevented the Dragons from extending their lead when Andrew McCullough was held up after a dart over the line from close range.
The Raiders — playing with the wind behind their backs in the second half — went close through Tapine before Hudson Young cut a sharp line to score in the 54th minute.
Fogarty managed to add the conversion from right in front to set up a tight finish.
Wighton's handling let them down once again and with five minutes to go he failed to find touch to get the Raiders out of trouble.
Canberra did get one last crack at the Dragons' line but Tapine was prevented from playing the ball as Hunt and Bird held the Raiders prop down, prompting an outburst of frustration from captain Elliott Whitehead.
Ladder
AAP/ABC
