Check out the match preview and prediction for the round 2 clash between the Melbourne Storm and the New Zealand Warriors.
MATCHDAY NEWS
MATCHDAY SCHEDULE
Melbourne Storm Vs New Zealand Warriors
Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne
Date: Saturday March 16, 7:35pm AEDT
MATCHDAY TEAM NEWS
Storm: 1. Ryan Papenhuyzen, 2. William Warbrick, 3. Reimis Smith, 4. Nick Meaney, 5. Xavier Coates, 6. Jonah Pezet, 7. Jahrome Hughes, 8. Tui Kamikamica, 9. Harry Grant, 10. Josh King, 11. Joe Chan, 12. Eliesa Katoa, 13. Trent Loiero, 14. Tyran Wishart, 15. Christian Welch, 16. Chris Lewis, 17. Alec MacDonald, 18. Shawn Blore, 19. Kane Bradley, 20. Marion Seve, 21. Sualauvi Faalogo, 22. Tepai Moeroa
Warriors: 1. Taine Tuaupiki, 2. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, 3. Rocco Berry, 4. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, 5. Marcelo Montoya, 6. Luke Metcalf, 7. Shaun Johnson, 8. Addin Fonua-Blake, 9. Wayde Egan, 10. Mitchell Barnett, 11. Jackson Ford, 12. Kurt Capewell, 13. Tohu Harris, 14. Freddy Lussick, 15. Tom Ale, 16. Bunty Afoa, 17. Dylan Walker, 18. Adam Pompey, 20. Jazz Tevaga, 21. Te Maire Martin, 22. Ali Leiataua, 23. Chanel Harris-Tevita
Referee: Chris Butler
Embed from Getty ImagesMATCHDAY PREVIEW
Fresh off the back of a 8-0 shut out of the Panthers in round 1, the Storm will be looking to back up that performance as they play host to the Warriors in round 2. Safe to say their defence was perfect last week: not many teams can say they held the defending premiers to nil in any game, let alone the first game of the year.
Coming into round 2, Craig Bellamy has named an unchanged 17, with Cameron Munster and Nelson Asofa-Solomona still sidelined with injuries. An area the Storm will be looking to improve is in attack, where they only managed to score eight points against a stingy Panthers defence. Granted, those eight points were enough to win, but they’ll need to improve that considerably if they’re going to continue their winning ways.
With Jahrome Hughes taking over as the lead half in the absence of Munster, we should see a more concerted effort to involve the right-side attack in this game, particularly Eliesa Katoa and Will Warbrick, who combined with Hughes well last season.
For the Warriors, they’ll be ruing a missed opportunity after they let a 12-0 lead slip against the Sharks last week to eventually lose 16-12 at home. Their forward pack started like a house on fire, but weren’t able to maintain the pace for the full 80 minutes, something they’ll need to turn around this week if they want to get their first win of the year.
Andrew Webster has named an unchanged 17 for this clash also, despite there being some injury speculation for both Wade Egan and Kurt Capewell. That should give them the best chance of rectifying their shortcomings from last week. Shaun Johnson might be missing his regular fullback, but he’s the key to the Warriors’ attacking fluidity and had the ball on a string last week as he picked up where he left off last year.
Having said that, he has the unenviable challenge of facing the Storm in Melbourne, a venue that has not been a happy hunting ground for the Warriors in recent times. In the past 10 clashes between these two sides in Melbourne, the Storm have won nine, with the Warriors’ only win coming back in 2014.
Head-to-head stats can be found at Round 2 Number Crunch.
MATCHDAY PREDICTION
Storm by 8 points.
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