NZ Warriors set to face Sea Eagles
- Dave Worsley
- 18 hours ago
- 2 min read
Hooker Wayde Egan’s 150th milestone appearance has been put on hold for a week with a hip complaint ruling him out of the NZ Warriors’ final regular season match against Manly n Sydney on Friday night.
Coming in to play his sixth NRL match is 23-year-old rookie dummy half Sam Healey,
who will start for the third time this season.
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In the Warriors’ last two matches, Egan (28) has been replaced by utility Te Maire Martin
after 50 minutes against the Titans and 52 minutes against the Eels.
Egan will now play his 150th game in the Warriors’ week one finals game next week.
Head coach Andrew Webster has made only one other change to the listed 17 with prop
Tanner Stowers-Smith this week named in the starting lineup after being swapped in
later off the interchange in the last two matches.
The 21-year-old clocked 41 minutes in two stints in the 32-18 win over the Titans and 39
minutes in a double shift in last week’s 22-26 defeat by Parramatta.
Webster has named the same backline for the third week since centre Rocco Berry made
his return.
The Warriors still have a chance of playing their way back into the top four but that will
hinge on the outcome of Thursday’s encounter between the Broncos and the Storm at
Suncorp Stadium.
A Brisbane victory would end the Warriors’ hopes but if the Storm win it will be game on
when they face the Sea Eagles in a contest the home side will also be desperate to take
out.
The Warriors have reached the finals for the second time in three years, the club’s best
achievement since making the top eight in 2010-2011 with only a one-off appearance in
the finals in 2018 in the intervening years.
Adam Pompey, Marata Niukore, Leka Halasima and Erin Clark are on target to complete
the feat of playing in each of the Warriors’ 24 regular season games with Pompey having
been on the field for all 1842 minutes.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Halasima and Pompey are in a tight race to be the team’s leading
try scorer. Tuivasa-Sheck moved to 12 from 17 games with his try last week.
Halasima also has 12 following his double with Pompey on 11 after his try (and he would
have been on 12, too, but for his second would-be match-winning try being ruled out).
The Warriors sit sixth on 34 points with 14 wins and nine losses, the Sea Eagles
(11 wins, 12 losses) are two points behind the eighth-placed Roosters but with a vastly
inferior points for and against differential of plus 20 points compared to the Roosters’
plus 102.
Warriors 1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 2. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, 3. Adam Pompey, 4. Rocco Berry, 5. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, 6. Chanel Harris-Tavita, 7. Tanah Boyd, 8. James Fisher-Harris (c), 9. Samuel Healey, 10. Tanner Stowers-Smith, 11. Kurt Capewell, 12. Marata Niukore, 13. Erin Clark.
Interchange (from): 14. Te Maire Martin, 15. Eddie Ieremia-Toeava, 16. Demitric Vaimauga, 17. Leka Halasima, 18. Taine Tuaupiki, 20. Kalani Going, 21. Bunty Afoa, 22. Ed Kosi, 23. Luke Hanson