10 Mar 2014

Eels thrash Warriors

6:54 am on 10 March 2014

The New Zealand Warriors have been thrashed 36-16 by the Parramatta Eels in their opening National Rugby League fixture in Sydney.

Parramatta led 14-12 at half-time.

Wooden-spooners the last two years, the Eels produced some free-flowing play and a strong defence to score seven tries to three, including hat-tricks to wingers Semi Radradra and Vai Toutai.

Warriors coach Matt Elliott says his side has plenty to work on before they face St George Illawarra at Eden Park next week but doesn't believe the display is a carbon copy of what happened 12 months ago, when they lost by 30 points in the same fixture.

Elliott says they would have like to have performed better than that, but certainly he has to acknowledge the opposition, who were very good.

He says they weren't quite where they wanted to be but comparing it to last year's performance is wide of the mark.

Elliott says there were some solid performances from his players, but physically they need to be better.

Big-money signing Sam Tomkins showed some encouraging signs by setting up two of his side's three tries.