Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Bouncing Back vs Dolphins At Mt Smart
As niggly as the NZ Warriors loss to Broncos was last weekend, somehow Warriors dragged their way through the muck to deliver a entertaining finish for the fizzed up Hawke's Bay locals. The 4 point loss to Broncos was a reminder of the players who Warriors were missing and despite much of the nuance of that defeat being swept up in the mayhem, there were signs of promise to take forward on this journey.
Now Warriors return to Mt Smart where they take on Redcliffe Dolphins. Dolphins are two spots ahead of Warriors on the ladder and while Dolphins are an impressive unit under coach Wayne Benett, there are some key differences between the two Brisbane teams. Broncos have conceded 231 points this season and compared to 275 points conceded by Dolphins for example, with Warriors conceding a healty 236 points.
There is a hefty difference between the Broncos' centre pair of Herbie Farnworth/Kotoni Staggs and the Dolphins centres in Euan Aitken/Brenko Lee. Broncos had a halves combo of Adam Reynolds/Ezra Mam and Dolphins will roll out Isaiya Katoa/Anthony Milford. Big ups Wellington's Katoa and also the South Auckland edge forward combo of Kenny Bromwich/Connelly Lemuelu, but they aren't quite on the same tier as Kurt Capewell/Jordan Riki.
This serves as a reminder that Broncos still delivered a strong team for their encounter with Warriors. Even Deine Mariner who played his first game of the season in place of Selwyn Cobbo is a fabulous Kiwi-NRL youngster and that showed in his performance. Warriors were also missing a few top-17 lads, almost as many as Broncos and there is a different flavour to the team named to host Dolphins.
The team this week feels more grown up, more mature, more professional. Wayde Egan returns to his starting hooker role and along with Dylan Walker's return to his bench role, Warriors are boosted by two key distributors. Mitchell Barnett is lined up to play his first game since round three and his aggression fits nicely alongside Tohu Harris and Addin Fonua-Blake.
Each of these lads provides a skillset that others in the squad can't offer. More importantly though, they are all experienced NRL troopers. Walker has played 197 games, Barnett has played 131 games and Egan's on 95 games. They replace younger lads who are settling into the NRL grind with Freddy Lussick, Tom Ale and Demitric Sifakula dropping out.
Ale's demotion is intriguing and sensible. He is the next middle forward in line and could sneak into the team to face Dolphins. Bayley Sironen's ability to cover dummy half and any position if required is better suited to the bench role. Sironen flashed some craft when filling in for Lussick against Broncos and ideally he can give Egan a spell, to ensure Egan's zip when defenders are fatigued.
Even though Broncos were missing top-17 starters, they challenged Warriors with their defence. The positive for Warriors was how they adapted to the Broncos defence and took advantage of space on the edges, while maintaining a threat in the middle. Broncos also put Luke Metcalf under pressure in his first game of the season and even though Metcalf was eager to run it straight, he couldn't beat the first defender against Broncos.
For everything that Broncos did to limited time/space and challenge how Warriors attack, Warriors still scored tries down the flanks and peppered space in the middle. Dolphins probably won't replicate the defensive effort from Broncos. When combined with the return of Egan/Walker, as well as learning for Metcalf, Shaun Johnson and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, it's hard to imagine Warriors attack being stunted at Mt Smart.
There is something funky brewing in the centres for Warriors. Adam Pompey had a brain fart late in the loss to Broncos, but he continues to offer a threat as a runner thanks to his footwork and like Rocco Berry on the other edge, both centres have offloading ability. Pompey has six try assists and joins Johnson (11) as the only Warriors with at least five try assists this season. Berry grabbed his first try assist of the season against Broncos, while both are average the most running metres per game of their respective careers.
How these two perform against Aitken and Lee will provide an enticing gauge. Farnworth and Staggs are among the best centres in the NRL, if not the best centre pair of any team. While they do their job, the same can't be said about Aitken and Lee. The Warriors centres were solid against the Broncos, missing just one tackle between them and hopefully they build on that performance against Dolphins.
In NSW Cup, Warriors are fourth on the ladder and face Rabbitohs who are 11th. This game will be played on Saturday afternoon in Sydney which will make it niggly for crossover between the NRL squad and reserve grade. The team named features two players from Warriors SG Ball with Selumiela (Leka) Halasima starting and dummy half Etuate Fukofuka named to make his debut off the bench.
Just quietly, Halasima played 80 minutes in the loss to Panthers. It wasn't his best mahi and the team lost, yet a youngster who is apparently still at school with Southern Cross Campus just played 80mins of NSW Cup. Seems notable. Halasima is named to start for the fourth time in his last five games.
As for Fukofuka, he's seems to be a sublime prospect. Playing halfback for St Peter's College 1st 15, Fukofuka made a few Auckland and NZRU representative squads before joining Warriors SG Ball. Many of his rugby union skills translate nicely to this role with Warriors as he has a slick passing skillset and a variety of kicks to deploy out of dummy half. Fukofuka is also a powerful runner and this passing/kicking/running triple threat is a fascinating package for a young dummy half.
Along with Fukofuka and Halasima, Jacob Laban and Tanner Stowers-Smith have also played SG Ball and NSW Cup. Two of these lads are from Auckland, Laban is a Randwick junior from Wellington and Stowers-Smith is a Halswell junior from Christchurch. That Warriors junior pipeline is flowing freely folks.
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Peace and love.