Young half Luke Metcalf enjoyed a breakout game on Saturday night as the Warriors ran riot in a 46-10 victory over the Eels in Sydney.
While the talk all week was about whether or not Shaun Johnson would play, it was his halves partner who stole the show at CommBank Stadium, scoring a first-half double and playing key role in setting up both of Marcelo Montoya’s four-pointers which were sandwiched in between.
Led by Jackson Ford, Mitchell Barnett and Addin Fonua-Blake, who was playing his 150th game, the Warriors dominated the middle of the park and all up ran for over 400 metres more than Parramatta, who were without three key players due to selection in Origin III.
After a sloppy opening quarter, which included completing just five of their first 12 sets with the ball, the Warriors finished with a hiss and a roar to lead 30-4 at the break.
After putting Ford through for a line break, Metcalf backed up on the next tackle to score, before the Eels hit back through a spirited run from Bailey Simonsson directly off a scrum.
That would end up being Parra’s only joy of the opening half, with a quickfire double from Montoya, a second to Metcalf and a try for Dylan Walker in game 200 seeing the visitors race away on the scoreboard.
Barnett barged over eight minutes into the second half, followed by Dallin Watene-Zelezniak grabbing his 11th try in seven games with a trademark finish in the right corner.
An offside penalty on a Warriors dropout led to the Eels scoring their second try on 66 minutes, with Shaun Lane crashing over in his return from a hamstring injury.
Barnett then carried fill-in fullback Sean Russell over from close range for his second try and the last of the game.