Coach praises effort after plane diversion chaos

Warriors coach Luisa Avaiki has praised her side's resilience after a plane diversion saw the team land in Brisbane overnight due to storm cells in Sydney on Friday.

The Warriors side held on to a history-making 10-4 victory over a more fancied Roosters side in an enthralling battle at ANZ Stadium on Saturday, but their morning was far from comfortable.

The side flew from New Zealand on Friday but were diverted to Brisbane, later arriving at a last-minute hotel from 11pm arrived at a Brisbane hotel at 11pm.

They caught a 6:00am flight from Brisbane to Sydney on Saturday morning, before defending their way to a first round win.

"I'm proud of how we conducted ourselves with the process we've had in the last two days," Avaiki said.

"It's not something we have to drill into our girls because the attitude is really professional. The commitment and attitude towards this competition has really shun through with how they responded through the whole situation.

"It's not days of our lives material really, the thunderstorms turned up when we were due to arrive in Sydney and the airport shut down.

"We couldn't land so got diverted, we stayed there the night and travelled down this morning."

The Warriors weren't suggested to win by many pundits in the lead up to the clash but their 10-0 lead early proved enough as they grinded out a huge defensive effort against a lacklustre Roosters outfit.

"I'm really proud of our girls, we knew how big this game was," Avaiki said.

"Not just the occasion but being the first game to kick it off, that was massive. I put it down to the girls for a long time being excited about this competition."

Roosters coach Adam Hartigan lamented a lack of trial preparation in the lead-up to the clash with a 68% compe

"We didn't do anything we wanted to do," Hartigan said.

"We hadn't had a trial and I think that showed. There were some individual performances that were good but I just thought we weren't connected as a team.

"A great game of footy for our first ever women's premiership. In terms of our performance, probably a disappointing first half.

"They outmuscled us in a fair few areas there, but it was a great first game for the competition.

"They came here with intent and that showed."

Roosters five-eighth Lavina O'Mealey admitted there was a breakdown of communication across the paddock.

"It was a fast-paced game, we thought about the result before we went out on the field," O'Mealey said.

"They won it up the middle. We had too many chiefs and not enough Indians. That will come in your first game with each other, we're playing with girls who we've never played with before in our lives."

The Roosters are hopeful to have Ruan Sims back from a hamstring injury next week, but Hartigan wasn't as confident with Jillaroo Nakia Davis-Welsh.

There are also concerns over Roosters skipper Simaima Taufa, who left the field with a leg injury in the six-point loss.