![\"Tanah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tanah-boyd-of-warriors-second-right-mid-game-against-wests-t-SVVPOWY4SBDSVLPUXNFTN5J2O4.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWarriors coach Andrew Webster has warned not to judge Tanah Boyd and Luke Metcalf’s combination after one game, backing his halves to bounce back against Cronulla.<\/p>\n
Metcalf and Boyd will play their second game starting together against the Sharks on Sunday, following the Warriors’ first defeat of the year to Wests Tigers last week.<\/p>\n
Boyd has been the most improved player in the competition this year, doing enough to keep his spot in the Warriors’ halves after starring in the first three rounds.<\/p>\n
But the Warriors flatlined against the Tigers last Friday in Metcalf’s return, after the 27-year-old had been the Warriors’ best in his first season at the club last year before his ACL rupture.<\/p>\n
“They’ll get better with more reps,” Webster said of his halves pairing. <\/p>\n
“They had one training session together plus a captain’s run, which was only light because it was a six-day turnaround last week.<\/p>\n
“This week they have had two good sessions and then they get another captain’s run.<\/p>\n
“With their combination, they were seeing things well and we’ve only built on them this week.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tanah Boyd of Warriors (second right) mid game against Wests Tigers. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n
Webster pointed to issues bigger than his halves out of last week’s defeat, concerned about the side losing big moments after they let a 10-0 lead slip.<\/p>\n
But he was adamant there would be a bounce back in Cronulla on Sunday, after the best opening three weeks to a season in Warriors history.<\/p>\n
“We can learn while we win, but nothing hits you in the face more than a loss,” he said. <\/p>\n
“The boys were gutted losing, but at the same time they were very optimistic.<\/p>\n
“On Sunday our actions will tell the story. How we’ve come back, and have we learnt from that stuff, and have we hung onto the good stuff.”<\/p>\n
The Warriors will be without star front-rower Mitch Barnett for Sunday’s clash after the prop broke his thumb in last week’s defeat.<\/p>\n
Webster revealed Barnett had been hurt early in the game but played through, before medical staff deemed he required surgery.<\/p>\n
The Warriors are unsure how long he will miss, but the injury is not expected to sideline him long term after his 2025 was also ruined by an ACL rupture.<\/p>\n
“He played with it for a long time \u2014 typical Mitch,” Webster said of Barnett’s thumb injury. <\/p>\n
“If he had his way he would probably be playing this week instead of having surgery, but his thumb has to stay attached so we’d like him to get it done.<\/p>\n
“He is a world-class player and Origin player and played for his country. We’re going to miss him, but next man up attitude and whoever plays will do a great job.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warriors coach Andrew Webster has warned not to judge Tanah Boyd and Luke Metcalf’s combination after one game,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,42,43,577,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-363182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-nrl","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}