The Vodafone Warriors are hunting a third straight win when they take on Newcastle in the New South Wales Cup leg of the club’s ‘Return to Mount Smart’ tripleheader on Sunday (11.40am kick-off; match day sponsor: Canterbury of New Zealand).
The Rohan Smith-coached side is sitting sixth on the table on 15 points after wins against Manly (22-18) and North Sydney (36-22) in the last two rounds.
The Knights come into this weekend’s Mount Smart Stadium encounter in eighth spot but have lost their last four matches on end.
After two interchange appearances against the Sea Eagles and the Bears, NYC-eligible Michael Ki has been named to start in the second row while Jarrod Tua returns on the wing.
Carlos Tuimavave is moved into the halves to join Sam Cook; Tuimavave and Cook both scored doubles against the Bears last week.
Back in the front row is Nathaniel Peteru, who was with the NRL squad for last week’s clash against Gold Coast.
VODAFONE WARRIORS v NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
11.40am, Sunday, June 1
VODAFONE WARRIORS
1 STEVE WAETFORD (c)
2 JARROD TUA
3 SOLOMONE KATA
4 DOMINIQUE PEYROUX
5 JARRED WILSON
6 CARLOS TUIMAVAVE
7 SAM COOK
8 CHARLES P GUBB
9 MICHAEL SIO
10 NATHANIEL PETERU
11 MICHAEL KI
12 RAYMOND FAITALA-MARINER
13 JOHN PALAVI
Interchange:
14 ABRAHAM PAPALII
15 UPU POCHING
16 ALBERT VETE
17 DAVID BHANA
COACH: ROHAN SMITH
