TWO big things loom over little Kevin Locke - the rosy-cheeked Warriors winger who stands just 175 centimetres tall - and he can't do much about either of them.

One is a continuing police investigation into sexual assault allegations, which he strenuously denies, the other is the impending return of his team's talismanic 112-kilogram winger, Manu Vatuvei. Vatuvei will fly with the Warriors to the Gold Coast on Friday, in time to watch but not play in the Anzac Test, and while his official return date is against Newcastle in round 10, there's speculation he could face the Titans next Sunday.

With Krisnan Inu in fine form on one side of the field, that suggests a swift return to reserve grade for Locke, who clawed his way back into the senior side only last weekend when Bill Tupou withdrew late.

But, as we said, there isn't much he can do about all that - except score tries. He picked up two yesterday against the Panthers, both of them opportunistic efforts.

Locke's first, six minutes in, came as Panthers back men Michael Gordon and David Simmons seemed genuinely confused by a regulation James Maloney grubber kick, which allowed Locke to dive between them and get the touch.

The other, two minutes after half-time and the game-breaker, came when he seized on a spilled Penrith pass inside his own 20-metre area and outsprinted Simmons to the other end. Neither were classic pieces of wing play, but both showed that 22-year-old Locke, who has always had oodles of natural talent, has begun to put in the hard yards to match.

"Ivan [Cleary, Warriors coach] has been talking to me about working off the ball, and today showed me working off the ball certainly helped with two unexpected tries,'' Locke said. "I intend to keep doing that, and working on other things as well.

"Manu will come into the team and do a job, and I have been trying to do my best leading up towards that: it's going to be hard and if I get put back to the Vulcans [reserve grade], that's life. But I am hoping not to.''

Inu, despite giving away four centimetres and 13kg to Vatuvei, has been doing a decent impersonation of ''the Beast'', leaping to claim a Maloney bomb and score yesterday. The Warriors have now won four of their past five.

The swirling wind at Mt Smart ensured this game would be no classic, but they kicked sensibly into the breeze in the first half and did enough. "It was a bit of an ugly win, but at the start of the year, when we played ugly, we didn't win,'' said their captain, Simon Mannering.