Mid Season Report: New Zealand Warriors

The Stats

as of round 13

Ladder Position: 8th

Played: 12
Wins: 6
Losses: 6

Points Scored: 240
Ranking: 9th

Points Conceded: 267
Ranking: 11th

State of Play

Injuries

Ben Henry (knee, season), Ngani Laumape (ACL, season), Sam Rapira (hamstring, indefinite), Glen Fisiiahi (knee, round 15), Thomas Leuluai (knee, season), Sione Lousi (hamstring, round 15)

Suspensions

nil

Season to Date

New Zealand Warriors and consistency is something that continues to plague the club in 2015.  They do find themselves inside the eight at the halfway point with their move up the table thanks to three straight wins against Cronulla, Parramatta and Newcastle before a heavy defeat against South Sydney last weekend in Perth.

Against Parramatta they put together one of the bravest wins in their history with fifteen fit players for the majority of the game.  However their ability to put away teams was evident in the Knights win a week later where on two occasions they led by ten points and were in a position to put their opponent away, but dropped their intensity and only managed to scrape home.

The Warriors have a heavy injury count headed by Ben Henry and Thomas Leuluai who won’t play again in 2015.  Another big name injury would most certainly derail Andrew McFadden sides quest to make finals footy.

Finals Bound?

It’s not beyond their ability for New Zealand Warriors to make the finals.  They have a reasonable draw including three home games in a row against Manly (Rd 20, Mt Smart), Cronulla (Rd 21, Mt Smart) and St George-Illawarra Dragons (Rd 22, Westpac Stadium).  This weekend they face the Roosters in the first of two matches at the back end of 2015.  As pointed out above, consistency might be their problem.  For me, they’re an each way bet at this point.