New Vodafone Warriors signings Blake Ayshford and Henare Wells spent time at Mount Smart Stadium today seeing their new surroundings and spending time with the football department as well as having a chat with Vodafone Warriors TV.
They’re due to assemble with their new team-mates when offseason training starts on November 2.
Centre Ayshford (27) is joining the Vodafone Warriors after 104 appearances for Wests Tigers from 2009 to 2013 and 20 for the Sharks in the last two seasons.
He’ll find at least two familiar faces in back rower Bodene Thompson and centre-wing Jonathan Wright; Thompson was a team-mate in his last season with the Tigers and Wright was a colleague in Ayshford’s first season with the Sharks in 2014.
Taumarunui-born Wells (22) had two seasons in the NYC with the Sydney Roosters before starring for the Newtown Jets in the New South Wales Cup in 2013 (when he was named the competition’s fullback of the year). For the last two seasons he has been with the Burleigh Bears in the Queensland Cup.
He’ll also find familiar faces in the Vodafone Warriors’ squad, not least marquee signing Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, who was one of his NYC team-mates at the Roosters.
Wells started playing rugby league with the Papakura Sea Eagles after his family moved to Auckland from Taumarunui; they later shifted to the Gold Coast where Wells attended the famed rugby league nursery Keebra Park State High School.
Ayshford also has a New Zealand connection; his partner Maria Hahipene was born and raised in Whakatane. Thery have two children.
