A frustrated Brad Arthur has lamented Parramatta's lack of resilience after they were thrashed 46-10 on their home turf by a Warriors side inspired by a mercurial performance from five-eighth Luke Metcalf.
Arthur's side came into Saturday's meeting off the back of five straight wins but without Clint Gutherson, Mitchell Moses and Regan Campbell-Gillard due to State of Origin commitments.
Dylan Brown and Josh Hodgson were also unavailable as Metcalf, who scored two tries and had a hand in two more, condemned the Eels to their second-biggest loss at CommBank Stadium.
"We can't take anything away from the Warriors just because we had a few missing," Arthur said.
"I'm disappointed in that performance, we had a good enough team out there to be better than that.
"That performance needs to be a one-off, because I don't think our attitude, mentality or intent was enough."
Parramatta matched the Warriors for the first 20 minutes, with Metcalf and Eels centre Bailey Simonsson exchanging tries.
It was only Metcalf's sixth NRL game for the New Zealand club after a hamstring injury derailed his pre-season.
He appeared keen to make up for lost time, playing a part in two tries for Marcelo Montoya and scoring his second of the evening before the halftime break.
His combination with Shaun Johnson also looks promising as the Warriors close in on a top-four finish.
"It's important they build combinations," said Warriors coach Andrew Webster, who guided the Kiwi outfit to a fourth-straight away win for the first time since 2019.
"The best part about Luke's game tonight was how reliable it was. It wasn't flashy, it was within the way we wanted to play and Luke shines when he does that."
Johnson, whose wife Kayla is expecting their second child in the coming days, nearly opted out of the trip across the Tasman.
Truth be told, Metcalf played so well Webster could have instructed Johnson to stay in Auckland with his family rather than play his 200th in Sydney's west.
"I hope Shaun gets home for the birth," Webster said.
"Him and his wife came up with that decision (for Johnson to play).
"Shaun just wants to win with his teammates."
Dylan Walker crossed on the stroke of halftime to put the Warriors 30-4 up at the break.
Mitch Barnett scored a double and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak gave another display of his acrobatic finishing to wrap up the win for the Warriors, who host Cronulla in Auckland next week.
