The Vodafone Warriors will take the field as selected when they mark the double 150-game celebration for captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and halfback Blake Green in today’s 15th-round NRL clash against Penrith at Mount Smart Stadium.
Tuivasa-Sheck and Green both achieve their 150-game milestones in a side featuring recalled for Nate Roache, Sam Lisone and Leivaha Pulu on the bench.
Hooker Roache replaces veteran Issac Luke for his first match since picking up a back injury in the May 11 win over St George Illawarra in Brisbane.
Lisone back in the NRL side for the first time since round five while Pulu is set for his first outing this season.
They come in to fill the void created by the absence of first-choice forwards Tohu Harris and Lachlan Burr.
It has been confirmed Harris will be out for up to six weeks after having surgery on a stress fracture in his foot picked up late in the 24-20 win over the Titans on June 14. Burr is out this week but will be available again next week.
With Harris and Burr out, Adam Blair, who played his 300th career match against Gold Coast, switches to the second row while Jazz Tevaga starts at loose forward.
The 32-year-old Green’s 150th appearance has been a long time coming via a number of clubs.
He played only six times in his rookie season with Parramatta in 2007 followed by just 19 games over two years with Cronulla in 2008 and 2009. Following 18 appearances for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in 2010 he moved to England, spending two seasons with Hull Kingston Rovers and two with Wigan before returning to the NRL in 2015. After two seasons with Melbourne and one with Manly he made the Vodafone Warriors his sixth NRL club last year.
Tuivasa-Sheck’s run to 150 appearances has been far less hectic, playing 84 times for the Sydney Roosters from 2012-2015 before playing the first of his 65 games so far for the Vodafone Warriors in 2016.
Kitted out in a 1956 Auckland replica strip for Sunday’s Heritage Round contest, the Vodafone Warriors headline the second annual Great Vodafone Warriors Charity Day.
VODAFONE WARRIORS v PENRITH PANTHERS
4.00pm, Sunday, June 30, 2019
Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
Referees: Gerard Sutton and Adam Cassidy
VODAFONE WARRIORS
1 ROGER TUIVASA-SHECK (c)
2 DAVID FUSITU’A
3 PETA HIKU
4 PATRICK HERBERT
5 KEN MAUMALO
6 KODI NIKORIMA
7 BLAKE GREEN
8 AGNASTIUS PAASI
9 KARL LAWTON
10 LEESON AH MAU
11 ADAM BLAIR
12 ISAIAH PAPALI’I
13 JAZZ TEVAGA
Interchange:
14 NATE ROACHE
15 BUNTY AFOA
16 SAM LISONE
17 LEIVAHA PULU
HEAD COACH | STEPHEN KEARNEY
