Two changes have been made to the Vodafone Warriors’ starting forward pack for their 14th-round New South Wales Cup encounter with the Wyong Roos at Mount Smart Stadium today (5.45pm kick-off).
Captain John Palavi will start in the second row after originally being named at prop with his brother Daniel moved off the bench to run on in the front row.
That results in James Bell, initially named in the second row, moving to the interchange.
John Palavi is one of two reinforcements back from injury, the other being centre Matt Allwood who returns from an ankle injury. Last week centre David Fusitu’a came back from a groin injury.
The Vodafone Warriors are coming off a heavy loss to Canterbury-Bankstown but still sit fifth on the ladder.
Wyong is third on the table with the same number of points as the Vodafone Warriors after beating Newtown last week. Named to line up for the Roos are former Vodafone Junior Warriors Omar Slaimankhel and Abraham Papalii.
VODAFONE WARRIORS v WYONG ROOS
Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
5.40pm, Saturday, June 13
Referee: Shane Rehm
VODAFONE WARRIORS
1 SAM COOK
2 VILIAMI KAVEINGA
3 MATTHEW ALLWOOD
4 DAVID FUSITU’A
5 PAUL ULBERG
6 API PEWHAIRANGI
7 MASON LINO
15 DANIEL PALAVI
9 SILIVA HAVILI
10 NATHANIEL PETERU
8 JOHN PALAVI (c)
12 DOMINIQUE PEYROUX
13 DAVID BHANA
Interchange:
11 JAMES BELL
14 KOUMA SAMSON
16 PAUL TULI
17 ZAC TIPPINS
COACH: STACEY JONES
