Date: Saturday June 27, 2015
Venue: Mount Smart Stadium
Kick-Off: 5pm (NZT)
Warriors: 1 Sam Tomkins 2 Tuimoala Lolohea 3 Konrad Hurrell 4 Solomone Kata 5 Manu Vatuvei 6 Chad Townsend 7 Shaun Johnson 8 Jacob Lillyman 9 Nathan Friend 10 Ben Matulino 11 Bodene Thompson 12 Ryan Hoffman 13 Simon Mannering (C). Interchange: 14 Siliva Havili 15 Raymond Faitala-Mariner 16 Charlie Gubb 17 Albert Vete
Raiders: 1 Jack Wighton 2 Edrick Lee 3 Jarrod Croker (c) 4 Sisa Waqa 5 Jordan Rapana 6 Blake Austin 7 Sam Williams 8 Paul Vaughan 9 Josh Hodgson 10 David Shillington 11 Josh Papalii 12 Iosia Soliola 13 Shaun Fensom. Interchange: 14 Kurt Baptiste 15 Jarrad Kennedy 16 Frank-Paul Nuuausala 17 Shannon Boyd 18 Joseph Leilua
Preview
New Zealand Warriors will be looking to consolidate their spot in the top eight when they host tenth placed Canberra Raiders at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland on Saturday evening.
When Shaun Johnson is on fire life is great for the Warriors. Last Saturday night the last season’s Golden Boot winner lived up to the reputation with a sublime performance where the Warriors did something they haven’t been to achieve this season, put away a side. Their 36-14 win comes at a pivotal part of the season and the expectation will be this week they can account for Canberra on their home turf. If they play anywhere like they did against Gold Coast in the final twenty, they should win comfortably.
Tuimoala Lolohea returns to the Warriors side at the expense of injured Ken Maumalo. Ryan Hoffman and Jacob Lillyman will start after coming from the bench following Origin last week. Albert Vete returns to the bench.
Canberra might consider themselves unlucky not to knock off the Cowboys at home last weekend on their way to an eleventh consecutive win. Their previous encounter before having a bye was against Newcastle at Hunter Stadium where once again Blake Austin was knocking on the door of Origin selection in a big win where he scored twice after the main break. After such a deflated feeling last week, Ricky Stuart will need to provide motivation for the tricky trip across the ditch.
Joey Leulia has traveled with the side that arrived on Wednesday in New Zealand. The remainder of the side is fit and unchanged from last week’s one point defeat. The side includes David Shillington who signed on with the Gold Coast Titans late this week on his 32nd birthday. This game will be his 195th appearance in the National Rugby League.
Since the Warriors entered the competition twenty years ago, Canberra have won six of seventeen at Mount Smart Stadium. Their most recent win coming in 2012 where Reece Robinson and Blake Ferguson grabbed doubles in the Raiders 42-22 win over the Warriors. Sadly both players have moved elsewhere since. One year later the Warriors proved too good 50-16, the last meeting between the two sides at the venue.
Prediction without too much conviction I think the Warriors will do enough to get the points. Warriors by 10.
