Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Returning To The Mt Smart Fortress
Despite a niggly loss to Storm, NZ Warriors continue to churn out hearty performances and something is brewing deep within Mt Smart as Warriors also sit 1st in NSW Cup. No need to dive deep into analysis of the Storm loss here as some stinky forces worked against Warriors for that encounter. Unlike previous Anzac Day fixtures though, Warriors didn't crumble and they now return to Mt Smart for a glorious Sunday afternoon of footy.
Returning to Mt Smart is useful considering that Warriors are 3-0 in home fixtures. One was the win over Knights in Wellington, followed by tough battles against Bulldogs and Cowboys in which the home crowd elevated Warriors mana. Everyone loved to moan about Warriors during the pandemic. Some even went as far as whipping up big yarns to break down Warriors woes, yet the lack of home games clearly didn't help.
Interestingly, Roosters are 0-3 in away games this season. Their 4-3 record is determined by home and away games. Roosters, Warriors and Sea Eagles are the only three teams who are undefeated at home this year prior to round nine.
Roosters are bolstered by some of Aotearoa's best ballers. Tokoroa's Joseph Manu is in the halves and Rotorua's Jared Waerea-Hargreaves leads their forward pack. The Waiheke Ram Brandon Smith returns to Auckland and Marist junior Sitili Tupouniua has finished his healing, now coming off the bench. The Kiwi-NRL vibes could be boosted if Bay Roskill junior Naufahu Whyte is promoted from the extended bench.
Forget the Aussies, that's an epic cast of Kiwi-NRL Roosters. Apart from the home/away records of either team, the strength of the Roosters squad and a beaten up Warriors roster should have Roosters as favourites. Underdogs at Mt Smart sounds lovely and if Warriors can snare a win from this tough patch of games (Storm, Roosters, Panthers), that would be a positive wrinkle to take into the depths of winter.
Dylan Walker is free to play and is named in the halves alongside Shaun Johnson. Taine Tuaupiki slots in at fullback. Bunty Afoa and Josh Curran start as middles. How the bench is built will be interesting as well with Viliami Vailea named there, a spot which could go to Demitric Sifakula if coach Andrew Webster wants more oomph.
Tuaupiki only played 39 minutes in the NSW Cup win over Eels last weekend, battling what seemed to be an ankle injury. Tuapiki had a linebreak, 6 tackle busts, an offload and 94m in a half of footy. That's tied for the most tackle busts Tuaupiki has had in a game this season despite playing less minutes.
Tuaupiki's best game for run metres was round two against Roosters where he had 149m, which amounted to 1.86m/minute. Last week Tuaupiki averaged 2.41m/minute.
Edge forwards Marata Niukore and Jackson Ford will be key lads against Roosters. Both had tough outings against Storm with Niukore playing 80mins for the first time this season which gave him his best running stats, while missing 3 tackles for the third time this season. Niukore made 40 tackles without a miss in the previous loss to Roosters, while Ford only played 2mins of that game. Ford missed 8 tackles vs Storm, the most he has missed this season.
That isn't the status-quo this season and these two, along with Warriors will be eager to bounce back. Warriors average 28 missed tackles per game and were well above that against Storm, missing 38 tackles. Sitting 1st for completion rate in the NRL, Warriors are the only team on 82%. Despite falling off defensively against Storm, Warriors completed at 89% (Storm were 81%) and that's the key nugget of how Warriors are competing in every game this season.
Missing 30+ tackles is a bad sign for Warriors and that won't lead to a win against Roosters. Regardless of how many injuries Warriors have or what team is rolled out, coach Webster is leading a team that rips in defensively and he will be driving improvements this week.
One other thing that didn't help vs Storm was a lack of kick return metres. Warriors average 184.5 kick return metres per game and this dropped to 147 vs Storm, which was probably influenced by the halves for Storm in Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes. Munster has a left-footed kicking game and had 7 kicks, while Hughes had 12 kicks for a fairly even split of kicking mahi. Harry Grant even had 3 kicks.
Compare that to Roosters who had Luke Keary taking 14 kicks vs Dragons, while Manu and Smith had a kick each. If Keary is handling most of the kicking mahi for Roosters, Warriors should be ready for each kick and that will enable them to start their sets rolling forward.
NSW Cup Warriors also host Roosters, who are 11th. Warriors will probably need to replace Tuaupiki as he was named at fullback for NRL and NSW Cup with the likeliest option being Geronimo Doyle. If Sifakula does crack an NRL bench spot, he is tackling at 95% in NSW Cup and is fresh of two games running over 100m with at least 5 tackle busts in both games, as well as tries in both games.
The most important NSW Cup Warriors thing is still Selumiela (Leka) Halasima. The team has won four of the five games that 17-year-old Halasima has played and the win over Eels was his best outing so far this season. This will be his second start of the season and while he is named at edge forward, Halasima did most of his exceptional mahi last week through the middle.
Join the Niche Cache Patreon whanau to support our kiwi sports content straight up, get a karma boost and find extra podcasts.
Every Monday and Friday we fire off an email newsletter with bonus content. Sign up here!
Peace and love.