With their 13th win of the season, the NZ Warriors moved to just two points off the top of the New South Wales Cup table.
The 28-10 victory over South Sydney in Round 23 at Auckland's Bruce Pulman Park on Sunday completed a Warriors double-header sweep, following the Jersey Flegg Cup side’s 22-10 win over the Rabbitohs in the curtain-raiser.
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Coming off their 46-10 victory against Parramatta a week ago, the Warriors were into their work quickly against the 12th-placed Rabbitohs.
Within 12 minutes they had two tries to show for it, with wing Motu Pasikala over in the seventh minute and centre Eddie Ieremia following five minutes later for a 12-0 lead.
A response from South Sydney cut the lead to eight points but the Warriors restored their 12-point advantage three minutes short of halftime when Ieremia had a second try.
In the opening minutes of the second half the Rabbitohs were back within six points at 10-16 after an Izaac Thompson try but the Warriors then regrouped to see off their opponents.
A try to fullback Ben Farr in the 55th minute – converted by Luke Metcalf – extended the advantage to 22-10 and another to prop Zyon Maiu’u plus the extras from Metcalf made it 28-10 with 13 minutes to play.
The Warriors efficiently closed out the match over the final stages to surge to 31 points on the ladder.
They sit fourth on a condensed table with the North Sydney Bears leading on 33, Canberra second on 32 and Newtown also on 31 but third on points for and against after beating the Bears.
All the statistics underlined the Warriors' superiority on the day - possession 55 percent to 45 percent, completions 81 percent to 71 percent, metres gained 2035-1554, line breaks 8-1, tackle breaks 56-20 and missed tackles 20-56.
No fewer than 13 Warriors topped 100 metres, with Leka Halasima leading the way with 11 tackle breaks.
Metcalf, in his first 80-minute performance in four months, came through with 77 metres from eight runs, a line break, a line break assist, two try assists, 57 receipts, 11 tackles with one miss, an intercept, 389 metres from 15 kicks, a 40/20 and four goals from five attempts.
There was no last-minute heartaches for the Warriors in the Jersey Flegg Cup (under-21) as they worked their way to a solid 22-10 win over South Sydney in Round 23.
Last week, the Warriors fought back to draw level with Parramatta 20-20 but could not clinch victory with the Eels instead snatching the match-winning try two minutes from fulltime.
No such concerns this time as the home side took the lead in the 11th minute and went on with it to grind out a confidence-boosting victory in front of a healthy crowd at the Takanini venue in Manukau City.
Not only was there relief and satisfaction over securing a win but the result also lifted the Warriors up a spot to 12th place on 19 points, edging ahead of the Rabbitohs through their superior points for and against differential.
Unlike many of their recent contests, the Warriors weren’t left chasing the game after falling behind in the first half.
In a grinding opening 35 minutes, they opened the scoring through hooker Jaydee Auloa for a 6-0 lead before conceding an unconverted try to the visitors to leave them just 6-4 ahead at halftime.
Both sides slogged it out until 16 minutes from fulltime when the Warriors finally put their stamp on the game.
Making his return after being out for a few weeks, winger Garry Tuilekutu provided breathing space with a 54th minute try converted by Etuate Fukofuka for a 12-4 lead and just three minutes later prop Toby Crosby produced one of the tries of the year.
Taking the ball from the restart 10 metres from his line he blasted through two defenders on a sensational 90-metre run including a fearsome fend to shove off a would-be defender. That made it 16-4.
There were some moments of concern when the Rabbitohs climbed back to 10-16 with nine minutes left but the Warriors saw them off with their fourth try to centre Nganatatafu Vake to close out a deserved triumph, their seventh of the season.